Polyandry in fish

Polyandry in fish is a mating system where females mate with multiple males within one mating season.Simmons, L. W., Beveridge, M. & Evans, J. P. Molecular evidence for multiple paternity in a feral population of green swordtails. The Journal of heredity 99, 610–5 (2008). This type of mating exists in a variety of animal species. Polyandry has been found in both oviparous and viviparous bony fish and sharks.Portnoy, D. S., Piercy, A. N., Musick, J. a, Burgess, G. H. & Graves, J. E. Genetic polyandry and sexual conflict in the sandbar shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus, in the western North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Molecular ecology 16, 187–97 (2007). General examples of polyandry occur in fish species, such as green swordtails and Trinidadian guppies.Barbosa, M., Dornelas, M. & Magurran, a E. Effects of polyandry on male phenotypic diversity. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 23, 2442–52 (2010). Specific types of polyandry have also been classified, such as classical polyandry in pipefishColeman, S. W. & Jones, A. G. Patterns of multiple paternity and maternity in fishes. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 103, 735–760 (2011). cooperative polyandry in cichlidsAvise, J. C., Jones, A. G., Walker, D. & DeWoody, J. A. Genetic mating systems and reproductive natural histories of fishes: lessons for ecology and evolution. Annual Review of Genetics 36, 19–45 (2002). and convenience polyandry in sharks.Griffiths, A. M. et al. First analysis of multiple paternity in an oviparous shark, the small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula L.). The Journal of heredity 103, 166–73 (2012).

Examples

Poeciliids are freshwater live-bearing fish and internal fertilizers that are able to store sperm for months, setting the stage for sperm competition and allowing female cryptic sperm choice. These Poeciliid species include green swordtails, '' Xiphophorus helleri'' and Trinidadian guppies, ''Poecilia reticulata''. When females mate promiscuously and copulate with multiple males, the interests of the sexes may differ, leading to sexual conflict. These conflicts include mating and fertilization frequency, parental efforts, and power struggles between male and female dominance.Zeh, J. A. & Zeh, D. W. Current Issues – Perspectives and Reviews. Toward a new sexual selection paradigm: polyandry, conflict, and incompatibility. Conflict 950, 929–950 (2003).

The Trinidadian guppy, ''Poecilia reticulata'' has a resource-free mating system, meaning males do not provide during mating or defend their territories against other males.Evans, J. P. & Magurran, a E. Multiple benefits of multiple mating in guppies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 97, 10074–6 (2000). Guppies demonstrate one of the highest levels of female multiple mating in the fish species. Females tend to copulate with multiple males to ensure that males with strongly competitive sperm have increased paternity rates.Evans, J. P. & Gasparini, C. The genetic basis of female multiple mating in a polyandrous livebearing fish. Ecology and evolution 3, 61–6 (2012). Females who engage in polyandry obtain certain advantages such as shorter gestation times, larger broods, and the production of offspring with better phenotypes and abilities. Females prefer phenotypically bright colored males that are usually orange, red, yellow, or blue. Male offspring from polyandrous mating tend to be more colorful than offspring from monogamous mating, which contain more black spots rather than multiple colors. Brightly colored males tend to display stronger sigmoidal displays, correlating sperm production rate with courtship intensity and body size. Offspring were more phenotypically diverse than their parents, suggesting a diversified selection that allows offspring to cope better with the environment and have variability in mating. However, there are also costs associated with polyandry. Placental fish '' Heterandria formosa'' offspring from females who mate with multiple males, have a longer maturation time, leading to potentially higher levels of fatality in slower developing offspring.Ala-Honkola, O., Friman, E. & Lindström, K. Costs and benefits of polyandry in a placental poeciliid fish Heterandria formosa are in accordance with the parent-offspring conflict theory of placentation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24, 2600–10 (2011).

Classical polyandry

Classical polyandry occurs when the evolution of sex role reversal has occurred and a female copulates with multiple males.Andersson, M. Current Issues – Perspectives and Reviews. Evolution of classical polyandry: three steps to female emancipation. Ethology 23, 1–24 (2005). These males raise their own progeny without any help from females. This mating system is hypothesized to occur in three steps. The first step, which is an important prerequisite step in classical polyandry, involves the evolution of male care for eggs. In the second step, females have the ability to produce more clutches than a male can handle, leading to an increase in female fecundity because these females need to find other males to mate with for the remaining eggs they produced. The third step occurs as females compete to lay a clutch into a nest for the next male while the original male is caring for the initial clutch. More successful females tend to produce greater amounts of offspring.

Male pregnancy is a common feature in the family Syngnathidae, which includes pipefish, seahorses, and sea dragons.Jones, a G., Walker, D. & Avise, J. C. Genetic evidence for extreme polyandry and extraordinary sex-role reversal in a pipefish. Proceedings: Biological Sciences 268, 2531–5 (2001). This type of polyandry has been demonstrated by analyzing the genetic composition of Gulf pipefish, ''Sygnathus scovelli'' and straightnose pipefish, '' Nerophis ophidion'', which shows that males only mate once during their pregnancy, whereas females mate multiple times. This extreme form of polyandry indicates that this species has a much stronger intensity of sexual selection on females than on males, in which females tend to be larger and more adorned than males. Evidence for stronger sexual selection in females in Gulf pipefish, ''Syngnathus scovelli'', include having secondary sexual characteristics, such as longer abdomens and stripes that are not found in males. Males are usually capable of combining uniparental care with defending their territories or nest, attracting females for copulation.

Some species of male pipefish have a fully or partially enclosed pouch where females deposit eggs. Males then fertilize and carry the offspring in or on his body until the offspring hatch. The pipefish species, ''Syngnathus typhle'' males can only carry approximately half of the brood produced by a larger female. This male limitation allows females to increase their fitness by developing eggs for multiple males. These females can then mate with multiple males, which leads to increased female fecundity and supports the second step of the evolution of classical polyandry.

Cooperative polyandry

Cooperative polyandry occurs when inferior males potentially share paternity and offspring care with a dominant male.Kohda, M. et al. Living on the wedge: female control of paternity in a cooperatively polyandrous cichlid. Proceedings: Biological Sciences 276, 4207–14 (2009). This type of polyandry occurs in eight fish species, including cichlids. Females can potentially direct the paternity of dominant, or alpha males and subordinate, or beta males by techniques such as cryptic female choice and sneaky copulation with subordinate males. Although dominant males potentially provide alleles which code for superior phenotypic traits, females also choose to mate with subordinate males because they provide more brood care than the larger dominant males. Subordinate males, or nest-helpers, can gain benefits from protecting the clutch such as food, protection, and successful paternity.

Multiple explanations have been hypothesized to explain the evolution of cooperative polyandry.Wong, M. & Balshine, S. The evolution of cooperative breeding in the African cichlid fish, Neolamprologus pulcher. Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 86, 511–30 (2011). These hypotheses include kin selection, pay-to-stay, signals of prestige, and group augmentation. Kin selection occurs when individuals help their offspring to increase their inclusive fitness, which includes aid in defending their territory and being related to females. Evidence suggests that helpers in the cichlid species, '' Neolamprologus pulcher'', tend to have preferential treatment for their kin over other males’ kin. Pay-to-stay occurs when beta males help alpha males and females in order to be allowed to stay in the nesting site.Balshine-Earn, S., Neat, F. C., Reid, H. & Taborsky, M. Paying to stay or paying to breed? Field evidence for direct benefits of helping behavior in a cooperatively breeding fish. Behavioral Ecology 9, 432–438 (1998). Also, beta males will continue to help the nest even when a new alpha male takes over the site to avoid being evicted. However, this hypothesis has not yet been supported due to a lack of observation regarding alpha males punishing beta males for not caring for the offspring. Signals of prestige include higher quality males being able to demonstrate stronger advertising techniques than lower quality males to increase their paternity rate. However, there is currently very little evidence supporting this hypothesis, especially in cichlids, where size has been found to determine the hierarchies. The group augmentation hypothesis states that cooperative mating systems are favored when it enhances group size and reproductive fitness. More research still needs to be conducted to determine whether or not group augmentation is beneficial in cooperative mating systems.

Cooperative polyandry occurs in the cichlid species, ''Chalinochromis brichardi'' and ''Julidochromis transcriptus'' from Lake Tanganyika and the ''Neolamprologus pulcher''. The cooperatively breeding cichlids tend to exhibit a size order of the alpha male being the largest, followed by the female, and the beta males being the smallest of the group. However, in some cases, females can be the largest, followed by the alpha male, and then beta males.

Females can use their body size and wedge-shaped crests as copulation sites to direct male paternity when both alpha and beta males are present. Larger females have the ability to dominate all males and can choose which males to mate with externally. Smaller females are usually dominated by the alpha male, which can sometimes lead to a monogamous mating system between the alpha male and female. Sexual conflict occurs when females choose to mate with beta males over the alpha male because the alpha male's paternity is lowered. The subordinate males can conceal themselves from the dominant male inside the crevices to avoid conflict with the alpha male. Females can spawn eggs in deeper crests, allowing beta males to fertilize some of the clutch without being harassed by the alpha male. However, when only one type of male was present, females did not choose to mate in wedge-shaped crevices. This demonstrates that females might use the crevices as a strategy to attract both alpha and beta males to the nest.

Females can induce the paternity allotment of her potential mates by choosing where she deposits her eggs within her nesting site. Female brood location choice can intercede the effects of sexual conflict over group membership because it allows multiple males to protect each clutch, rather than having these males compete for their own clutch to mate with females. Even though some cichlid species display cooperative polyandry in crevices, other cichlid species are mouth brooders, where females carry eggs in their mouths that have been fertilized by multiple males. Typically, a maximum of six males can fertilize a single clutch of cichlid offspring.

Convenience polyandry

Convenience polyandry occurs when females mate with multiple males to avoid to coercive breeding harassment from these males. This type of polyandry was found throughout a variety of elasmobranch fish, or cartilaginous fish, such as sharks.Veríssimo, A., Grubbs, D., McDowell, J., Musick, J. & Portnoy, D. Frequency of multiple paternity in the spiny dogfish Squalus acanthias in the western north Atlantic. The Journal of heredity 102, 88–93 (2011). These sharks included lemon sharks,DiBattista, J. D., Feldheim, K. a, Gruber, S. H. & Hendry, A. P. Are indirect genetic benefits associated with polyandry? Testing predictions in a natural population of lemon sharks. Molecular ecology 17, 783–95 (2008). sandbar sharks,Portnoy, D. S., Mcdowell, J. R., Thompson, K., Musick, J. a. & Graves, J. E. Isolation and characterization of five dinucleotide microsatellite loci in the sandbar shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus. Molecular Ecology Notes 6, 431–433 (2006). nurse sharksPratt, H. L. & Carrier, J. C. A review of elasmobranch reproductive behavior with a case study on the nurse shark , Ginglymostoma cirratum. 157–188 (2001). and catsharks. For convenience polyandry to occur, the costs of females resisting males must outweigh the costs of mating. Females tend to get injured by males during copulation because males bite onto their pectoral fins and bodies while mating.Feldheim, K. A., Gruber, S. H., Ashley, M. V & Url, S. Reconstruction of Parental Microsatellite Genotypes Reveals Female Polyandry and Philopatry in the Lemon Shark , Negaprion brevirostris . 58, 2332–2342 (2013). Females can also receive cloacal injuries caused by the male's sexual organ. Strong evidence for female indirect benefits has not yet been determined, suggesting one reason for convenience polyandry. Since there do not seem to be any direct benefits for females, polyandry could be driven for male benefits. Males can force females into multiple mating to maximize their reproductive success. In addition to being a form of coercive breeding, males usually work together in cooperative breeding to force females to mate with them. Sexual dimorphism in mouth and dental morphology has been shown in males. These males develop long, narrow mouths and longer teeth that aid in biting female pectoral fins during mating.

Some shark species, such as catsharks, ''Scyliorbinus carnicula'', exhibit a different form of convenience polyandry. These sharks fertilize internally, but then lay their fertilized eggs onto algae or rocky surfaces. Catsharks tend to have a prolonged mating season, allowing females to store sperm and lay eggs hundreds of days after copulation from multiple males, displaying a high frequency of multiple paternity within a single clutch.

Several viviparous shark species, where females give birth to live offspring that develop internally within the mother, also engage in polyandry. In viviparous mating, a direct transfer of nutrients from mother to embryo through a yolk sac placenta occurs.Feldheim, K. a, Gruber, S. H. & Ashley, M. V The breeding biology of lemon sharks at a tropical nursery lagoon. Proceedings: Biological Sciences 269, 1655–61 (2002). Litters sired by multiple fathers have been determined in lemon sharks, '' Negaprion brevirostris'', nurse sharks, ''Ginlymostoma cirratum'', sandbar sharks, '' Carcharhinus plumbeus'', and squaloid sharks, such as spiny dogfish, ''Squalus acanthias''. Some male sharks can also mate multiple times with these females, which is referred to as a polygynandry mating system.

Overall, polyandry is the dominant mating system in lemon sharks and sandbar sharks. However, geography can play a role in mating systems. For example, western north Atlantic sandbar sharks exhibit polyandry as the dominant mating system whereas in the Central Pacific, sandbar sharks do not have a dominant polyandry mating system. In addition to polyandry, lemon sharks are one of the shark species that engage in philopatry, or the practice of females returning to sites where they have given birth to previous offspring.DiBattista, J. D., Feldheim, K. a, Thibert-Plante, X., Gruber, S. H. & Hendry, A. P. A genetic assessment of polyandry and breeding-site fidelity in lemon sharks. Molecular ecology 17, 3337–51 (2008). Females were found to have stronger loyalties to philopatry than males. These sharks gather together at specific mating sites, allowing females to mate with multiple males in one area. Selecting specific nursery sites influence adult fitness, recruitment, and provide a protected area for live offspring to develop.

However, one consequence that may arise is increased levels of inbreeding within the nursing sites. Another consequence includes coercive mating by males, which can force females into polyandrous mating even if they do not receive any benefits from this mating system. Copulation requires a substantial amount of energy and females that mate with multiple males causes a negative effect on their overall fitness. Female lemon sharks give birth to four to eighteen pups every two years. This two-year reproductive cycle usually occurs in lemon sharks, sandbar sharks, and nurse sharks. One hypothesis states that females can engage in polyandry to find genetically dissimilar and therefore compatible males to produce high quality offspring. However, no concrete evidence has been found to strongly support this hypothesis. Further research needs to be conducted to determine whether any direct or indirect benefits exist for elasmobranch sharks.

See also

*Polyandry in nature

References

{{diversity of fish

Fish reproduction
Fish