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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Behavioral and Evolutionary Ecology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fevo.2024.1476254

Sperm swimming speed and morphology differ slightly among the three genetic morphs of ruff sandpiper (Calidris pugnax), but show no clear polymorphism

Provisionally accepted
Martin Bulla Martin Bulla 1,2*Clemens Küpper Clemens Küpper 2David B. Lank David B. Lank 3Jana Albrechtová Jana Albrechtová 4,5*Jasmine L. Loveland Jasmine L. Loveland 6Katrin Martin Katrin Martin 2*Kim Teltscher Kim Teltscher 2*Margherita Cragnolini Margherita Cragnolini 2*Michael Lierz Michael Lierz 7*Tomaš Albrecht Tomaš Albrecht 4,5Wolfgang Forstmeier Wolfgang Forstmeier 2Bart Kempenaers Bart Kempenaers 2*
  • 1 Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague 6, Prague, Czechia
  • 2 Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Seewiesen, Germany
  • 3 Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
  • 4 Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR), Brno, South Moravia, Czechia
  • 5 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Prague, Czechia
  • 6 Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • 7 Clinic for Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The ruff sandpiper (Calidris pugnax) is a lekking shorebird with three male morphs that differ remarkably in behavior, ornaments, size, and endocrinology. The morphs are determined by an autosomal inversion. Aggressive Independents evolved first, female-mimicking Faeders ~4 mil year ago when a short segment of a chromosome reversed in orientation, and semi-cooperative Satellites ~70,000 years ago through a recombination of the Independent and Faeder inversion-segment genotypes. Although the genetic differences between the morphs affect numerous phenotypic traits, it is unknown whether they also affect sperm traits. Here, we use a captive-bred population of ruffs to compare ruff sperm to that of other birds and compare sperm swimming speed and morphology among the morphs. Ruff sperm resembled those of passerines, but moved differently. Faeder sperm moved the slowest and had the longest midpiece. Independents' sperm were neither the fastest nor the least variable, but had the shortest tail and midpiece. Although the midpiece contains the energy-producing mitochondria, its length was not associated with sperm swimming speed. Instead, two of three velocity metrics weakly positively correlated with head length (absolute and relative). We conclude that there is an indication of quantitative differences in sperm between morphs, but no clear sperm polymorphism.

    Keywords: Alternative mating strategies, autosomal inversion, genetic morphs, Spermatozoa, Sperm morphology, Sperm Motility, Sperm swimming speed, Sperm velocity

    Received: 05 Aug 2024; Accepted: 18 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bulla, Küpper, Lank, Albrechtová, Loveland, Martin, Teltscher, Cragnolini, Lierz, Albrecht, Forstmeier and Kempenaers. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Martin Bulla, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague 6, 165 21, Prague, Czechia
    Jana Albrechtová, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR), Brno, South Moravia, Czechia
    Katrin Martin, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Seewiesen, Germany
    Kim Teltscher, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Seewiesen, Germany
    Margherita Cragnolini, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Seewiesen, Germany
    Michael Lierz, Clinic for Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
    Bart Kempenaers, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Seewiesen, Germany

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