Abstract

It is generally believed that variation in sperm phenotype within a single ejaculate has no consequences for offspring performance, because sperm phenotypes are thought not to reflect sperm genotypes. We show that variation in individual sperm function within an ejaculate affects the performance of the resulting offspring in the Atlantic salmon Salmo salar. We experimentally manipulated the time between sperm activation and fertilization in order to select for sperm cohorts differing in longevity within single ejaculates of wild caught male salmon. We found that within-ejaculate variation in sperm longevity significantly affected offspring development and hence time until hatching. Whether these effects have a genetic or epigenetic basis needs to be further evaluated. However, our results provide experimental evidence for transgenerational effects of individual sperm function.

Keywords

gamete selection; epigenetics; haploid selection; sperm competition; fish

Published in

Biology Letters
2014, Volume: 10, number: 2
Publisher: ROYAL SOC

SLU Authors

• Petersson, Erik

  • Department of Aquatic Resources (SLU Aqua), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Evolutionary Biology
Fish and Aquacultural Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.1040

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/67416