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Rapid sperm evolution in the bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) subspecies complex

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Abstract

Spermatozoa are among the most variable animal cell types, and much research is currently directed towards explaining inter- and intraspecific variation in sperm form and function. Recent comparative studies in passerine birds have found associations between the level of sperm competition and both sperm length and sperm velocity. In species with sperm competition, postcopulatory sexual selection may shape the morphology of sperm as adaptations to the female environment. The speed of evolutionary change in sperm morphology at the species level is largely unknown. In this study, we analysed variation in sperm morphology among morphologically distinct and geographically isolated bluethroat subspecies in Europe. Consistent with previous studies, our analyses of mtDNA and nuclear introns suggest recent divergence and lack of lineage sorting among the subspecies. We found significant divergence in total sperm length and in the length of some sperm components (i.e. head and midpiece). There was a significantly positive relationship between pairwise divergences in sperm morphology and mitochondrial DNA, suggesting a role for genetic drift in sperm divergence. The magnitude of sperm length divergence was considerably higher than that in other geographically structured passerines, and even higher than that observed between several pairs of sister species. We hypothesize that the rapid sperm evolution in bluethroats is driven by sperm competition, and that strong postcopulatory sexual selection on sperm traits can lead to rapid speciation through reproductive incompatibilities.

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AcknowledgEments

We thank Marc Naguib for providing us with blood samples of L. megarhynchos, Patrick Bonnet, Sophie Questiau and Matthieu Marquet for help in the field, Eirik Rindal for statistical support, and Melissah Rowe, Becky Cramer and Gunnhild Marthinsen for helpful comments on the manuscript. Funding was provided by the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo (PhD fellowship to SH) and by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic (MSM6198959212) to VP.

Ethical standards

All authors declare that the present study complies with the current laws and ethical standards of animal research in Czech Republic, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Russia and Spain.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Genbank accession numbers

VLDLR7: KC595671–KC595724

BRM15: KC595725–K C595778

Control region: KC595779–KC595862

COI: KC789558–KC789641

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1172, Blindern, 0318, Oslo, Norway

    Silje Hogner, Terje Laskemoen, Jan T. Lifjeld & Arild Johnsen

  2. Laboratory of Ornithology, Palacký University, 17. Listopadu 50, 771 46, Olomouc, Czech Republic

    Václav Pavel

  3. Malinová 27, 106 00, Praha 10, Czech Republic

    Bohumír Chutný

  4. Área de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Universidad de León, Campus de Vegazana s/n, 24071, León, Spain

    Javier García

  5. University of Rennes 1, UMR 6553, 263 Avenue du Général Leclerc, CS 74205, 35042, Rennes cedex, France

    Marie-Christine Eybert

  6. Laboratory of Ornithology, Ecological Centre “Dront”, Nizhny Novgorod, 603000, P.O. Box 631, Russia

    Ekaterina Matsyna

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  1. Silje Hogner
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  2. Terje Laskemoen
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Correspondence to Silje Hogner.

Additional information

Communicated by S. Pruett-Jones

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Fig. S1

Maximum likelihood tree (Tamura-3-Parameter model, 10,000 bootstrap replicates) based on the intron BRM-15 (353 bp) for 53 bluethroats. Only bootstrap values above 50 % are shown. Grey = azuricollis, blue = cyanecula, red = namnetum, black = svecica and green = the outgroup L. megarhynchos (JPEG 1244 kb)

High resolution image (EPS 2611 kb)

Fig. S2

Maximum likelihood tree (Kimura-2-Parameter model, 10,000 bootstrap replicates) based on the intron VLDLR (580 bp) for 53 bluethroats. Only bootstrap values above 50 % are shown. Grey = azuricollis, blue = cyanecula, red = namnetum, black = svecica and green = the outgroup L. megarhynchos (JPEG 1524 kb)

High resolution image (EPS 3117 kb)

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Hogner, S., Laskemoen, T., Lifjeld, J.T. et al. Rapid sperm evolution in the bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) subspecies complex. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 67, 1205–1217 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1548-z

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