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The price of vanity: Mating with showy males may reduce offspring’s ability to fight off pathogens

01-10-2007 · EurekAlert!

In many animals, males advertise to potential mates with showy traits, many of which are linked to testosterone levels. However, a new study suggests that, in fish, choosing a flashier mate may cause future generations to be more susceptible to pathogens.

Keywords: price, vanity, mating, showy, males, offspring, ability, fight, pathogens, male, pathogen

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The price of vanity: Mating with showy males may reduce offspring's ability to fight off pathogens
01-10-2007 · EurekAlert!
In many animals, males advertise to potential mates with showy traits, many of which are linked to testosterone levels. However, a new study suggests that, in fish, choosing a flashier mate may cause future generations to be more susceptible to pathogens.
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Why are male antlers and horns so large?
03-16-2007 · EurekAlert!
Since Darwin, researchers have supposed that the large size of male ungulate antlers and horns is a signal that this is a male with sexual vigor, health, strength, hierarchical status or the ability to fight. Research in male roe deer showed that the size of the antlers did match age and body mass and resilience to environmental conditions.
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The precise role of seminal proteins in sustaining post-mating responses in fruit flies
12-17-2007 · EurekAlert!
Successful reproduction is critical to pass genes to the next generation. In sexually reproducing organisms, sperm enter the female with seminal proteins that are vital for fertility. In a new study published on Friday, Dec. 14, 2007 in PLoS Genetics, researchers at Cornell University knocked down the levels of 25 seminal proteins individually in male fruit flies, testing the males' abilities to modulate egg production, sperm storage and release, and the females' post-mating behavior and physiology.
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Female chimps keep the bullies at bay
03-07-2007 · EurekAlert!
Female chimpanzees may have found a fool-proof way to ensure they mate with only the highest ranking males, namely those with important social and physical characteristics that their offspring may inherit, according to a new study. Female chimpanzees do not synchronize their reproductive activities which reduces the opportunities for less-desirable males to coerce them into mating. The findings have just been published online in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
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Testosterone turns male juncos into blustery hunks -- and bad dads
10-15-2007 · EurekAlert!
The ability to ramp up testosterone production appears to drive male dark-eyed juncos to find and win mates, but it comes with an evolutionary cost. Big fluctuations in testosterone may also cause males to lose interest in parenting their own young, scientists have learned.
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Genetic analysis finds greater threat in frog-killing fungus
08-06-2007 · EurekAlert!
A new study led by UC Berkeley researchers suggests that a frog-killing fungus may be harder to fight because of the pathogen's ability to spread over long distances and possibly persist in the environment as a consequence of sexual reproduction. The fungus has already decimated populations of mountain yellow-legged frogs in the Sierra Nevada.
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The love song of male túngara frogs
02-08-2007 · EurekAlert!
Male túngara frogs produce two types of calls to attract females: simple and complex. Female túngara frogs, as well as unintended receivers such as frog-eating bats and blood-sucking flies, prefer complex to simple mating calls. Bernal et al. tested whether bats and flies prefer complex calls because they indicate higher quality males and/or higher male density. The authors found that call complexity indicate higher abundance of prey/host.
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The penalty of having a sister -- why sibling sex matters for male saiga antelopes
03-06-2007 · EurekAlert!
Having a twin sister could put male saiga antelopes at a reproductive disadvantage, says new research published today. The study shows that male twins with a sister are born lighter than those with a brother, making them smaller than the optimal size for males. The research also shows that saigas are the supermums of the hoofed animal world with no other similar species investing more in their offspring during pregnancy.
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Age Becomes Her: Male chimpanzees favor old females as mates
11-25-2006 · Science News Online
Male chimpanzees in Uganda prefer to mate with older females, a possible sign of males' need to identify successful mothers in a promiscuous mating system.
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Why the best things come to those who wait
10-19-2006 · EurekAlert!
Pushing to the front of the queue is not the best ploy for males who want to propagate their genes according to scientists from the University of Exeter. Dr David Hodgson and Dr David Hosken from the University of Exeter's School of Biosciences studied female mating with multiple males, especially species who mate with more than one partner in rapid succession, and discovered why the last male in line is most likely to impregnate the female.
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