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Functional variation of sperm morphology in sticklebacks

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Abstract

Some theoretical models of sperm competition make the assumption that in fish species with external fertilisation, sperm length relates positively to swimming speed at the expense of sperm longevity. Few studies have tested this assumption. We used the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus L., to study functional sperm morphology. In this study, the relationship between males’ mean sperm length and fertilisation rate was investigated in vitro in a non-competitive situation. Fertilisation at different time points after sperm release was taken into account, and sperm morphology was quantified from scanning electron microscopy images. The time series of artificial fertilisations demonstrated that males which produced sperm with a longer tail fertilised faster, but their sperm had a shorter lifespan (or activity period). It was further suggested that males that produced sperm with a larger midpiece had greater fertilisation chances later on in the fertilisation process. Thus, in sticklebacks, there exists functional variation in sperm morphology, and sperm tail length is traded off against sperm longevity (or activity).

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Acknowledgments

We thank the “Bakker Research Group” for discussions and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on the manuscript. Timo Thünken is acknowledged for pointing out a mistake in the calculation of sperm numbers in previous estimations. We are very grateful to the late Erika Müller-Schulte for competence both in practical assistance, making scanning electron microscope images and measurements of part of sperm morphology. We thank George Wintermans, Texel, the Netherlands and Peter Snelderwaart, University of Leiden, the Netherlands for catching and caring for the 2001 Texel sticklebacks, respectively. We thank Joachim G. Frommen for the 2005 Texel fish samples and the Euskirchen 2005 samples. We thank Jan Hottentot for catching the sticklebacks, which were used in the control experiment. We acknowledge the permission of Jürgen Wittler to catch sticklebacks at the Euskirchen field site and the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (BA 2885/4-1) for financial support.

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The experiments comply with the current laws of Germany in which they were performed.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Marc Zbinden

    Present address: Division Biology and Medicine, Swiss National Science Foundation, Wildhainweg 3, P.O. Box 8232, 3001, Bern, Switzerland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, University of Bonn, An der Immenburg 1, 53121, Bonn, Germany

    Theo C. M. Bakker, Michael Hollmann, Marion Mehlis & Marc Zbinden

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  1. Theo C. M. Bakker
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Correspondence to Theo C. M. Bakker.

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Communicated by J. Lindström

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Bakker, T.C.M., Hollmann, M., Mehlis, M. et al. Functional variation of sperm morphology in sticklebacks. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 68, 617–627 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1676-5

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