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Does mate guarding prevent rival mating in snow skinks? A test using AFLP

Olsson, M ; Ujvari, Beata LU ; Wapstra, E ; Madsen, Thomas LU ; Shine, R and Bensch, Staffan LU (2005) In Herpetologica 61(4). p.389-394
Abstract
We report on likely mixed paternity in a natural population of snow skinks (Niveoscincus mirolepidoms) from alpine Tasmania, Australia. This species is nonterritorial and males guard females after copulation, Suggesting that guarding behavior has evolved to prevent rival mating of still-receptive females. To what degree does this mate-guarding prevent rival copulations? We sampled gravid females at random in the wild and looked for within-clutch mixed paternity among their offspring using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Incorpating all visualized fragments, offspring band-sharing based on maternal bands was 0.94 (+/- 0.05, SD), whereas for paternal fragments it was 0.54 (+/- 0.46, SD). We then tested paternal band-sharing... (More)
We report on likely mixed paternity in a natural population of snow skinks (Niveoscincus mirolepidoms) from alpine Tasmania, Australia. This species is nonterritorial and males guard females after copulation, Suggesting that guarding behavior has evolved to prevent rival mating of still-receptive females. To what degree does this mate-guarding prevent rival copulations? We sampled gravid females at random in the wild and looked for within-clutch mixed paternity among their offspring using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Incorpating all visualized fragments, offspring band-sharing based on maternal bands was 0.94 (+/- 0.05, SD), whereas for paternal fragments it was 0.54 (+/- 0.46, SD). We then tested paternal band-sharing scores for all young of pairs against the mean score of the maternally inherited fragments to assess whether paternal genetic variation was larger than for a known single parent, hence, suggesting multiple sires. To reduce the risk of unequal sampling of polymorphic maternal and paternal fragments, We based Our statistical tests on heterozygous bands only. Offspring band sharing based on maternal heterozygous fragments was on average 0.68 ( +/- 0.22, SD), versus 0.35 (+/- 0.33, SD) based on paternally inherited fragments. in six of eight clutches (75%), at least one pair of voting in a clutch had paternal scores outside of the confidence interval for a single parent (i.e., the mother). Thus, mixed paternity seems to be widespread in this Population, despite prolonged postcopulatory mate-guarding by males. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Herpetologica
volume
61
issue
4
pages
389 - 394
publisher
Herpetologists' League
external identifiers
  • wos:000233517400006
  • scopus:33751565686
ISSN
0018-0831
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
f94388b0-9970-4329-860b-375b786db11e (old id 149155)
alternative location
http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1655%2F04-85.1
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 17:12:04
date last changed
2024-01-11 22:31:52
@article{f94388b0-9970-4329-860b-375b786db11e,
  abstract     = {{We report on likely mixed paternity in a natural population of snow skinks (Niveoscincus mirolepidoms) from alpine Tasmania, Australia. This species is nonterritorial and males guard females after copulation, Suggesting that guarding behavior has evolved to prevent rival mating of still-receptive females. To what degree does this mate-guarding prevent rival copulations? We sampled gravid females at random in the wild and looked for within-clutch mixed paternity among their offspring using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Incorpating all visualized fragments, offspring band-sharing based on maternal bands was 0.94 (+/- 0.05, SD), whereas for paternal fragments it was 0.54 (+/- 0.46, SD). We then tested paternal band-sharing scores for all young of pairs against the mean score of the maternally inherited fragments to assess whether paternal genetic variation was larger than for a known single parent, hence, suggesting multiple sires. To reduce the risk of unequal sampling of polymorphic maternal and paternal fragments, We based Our statistical tests on heterozygous bands only. Offspring band sharing based on maternal heterozygous fragments was on average 0.68 ( +/- 0.22, SD), versus 0.35 (+/- 0.33, SD) based on paternally inherited fragments. in six of eight clutches (75%), at least one pair of voting in a clutch had paternal scores outside of the confidence interval for a single parent (i.e., the mother). Thus, mixed paternity seems to be widespread in this Population, despite prolonged postcopulatory mate-guarding by males.}},
  author       = {{Olsson, M and Ujvari, Beata and Wapstra, E and Madsen, Thomas and Shine, R and Bensch, Staffan}},
  issn         = {{0018-0831}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{389--394}},
  publisher    = {{Herpetologists' League}},
  series       = {{Herpetologica}},
  title        = {{Does mate guarding prevent rival mating in snow skinks? A test using AFLP}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/4905197/625216.pdf}},
  volume       = {{61}},
  year         = {{2005}},
}