Male pygmy hippopotamus influence offspring sex ratio

Joseph Saragusty (), Robert Hermes, Heribert Hofer, Tim Bouts, Frank Göritz and Thomas B. Hildebrandt
Additional contact information
Joseph Saragusty: Research Group Reproductive Management, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research
Robert Hermes: Research Group Reproductive Management, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research
Heribert Hofer: Research Group Reproductive Management, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research
Tim Bouts: Zoological Society of London, ZSL Whipsnade Zoo
Frank Göritz: Research Group Reproductive Management, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research
Thomas B. Hildebrandt: Research Group Reproductive Management, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research

Nature Communications, 2012, vol. 3, issue 1, 1-5

Abstract: Abstract Pre-determining fetal sex is against the random and equal opportunity that both conceptus sexes have by nature. Yet, under a wide variety of circumstances, populations shift their birth sex ratio from the expected unity. Here we show, using fluorescence in situ hybridization, that in a population of pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) with 42.5% male offspring, males bias the ratio of X- and Y-chromosome-bearing spermatozoa in their ejaculates, resulting in a 0.4337±0.0094 (mean±s.d.) proportion of Y-chromosome-bearing spermatozoa. Three alternative hypotheses for the shifted population sex ratio were compared: female counteract male, female indifferent, or male and female in agreement. We conclude that there appears little or no antagonistic sexual conflict, unexpected by prevailing theories. Our results indicate that males possess a mechanism to adjust the ratio of X- and Y-chromosome-bearing spermatozoa in the ejaculate, thereby substantially expanding currently known male options in sexual conflict.

Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1700 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:3:y:2012:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1700

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1700

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().