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Rival seminal fluid induces enhanced sperm motility in a polyandrous ant

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, March 2018
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (91st percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (87th percentile)

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2 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
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12 X users
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2 Facebook pages
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1 YouTube creator

Citations

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41 Mendeley
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Title
Rival seminal fluid induces enhanced sperm motility in a polyandrous ant
Published in
BMC Ecology and Evolution, March 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12862-018-1144-y
Pubmed ID
Authors

Joanito Liberti, Boris Baer, Jacobus J. Boomsma

Abstract

Promiscuous mating and sperm competition often induce arms races between the sexes with detrimental outcomes for females. However, ants with multiply-inseminated queens have only a single time-window for sperm competition and queens are predicted to gain control over the outcome of sperm storage quickly. The seminal fluid of Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants reduces the viability of rival sperm, but how confrontations between unrelated ejaculates affect sperm storage remains unknown. We investigated the effects of ejaculate admixture on sperm motility in A. echinatior and found that the proportion of motile spermatozoa, sperm swimming speed, and linearity of sperm movement increased when rival ejaculates were mixed in vitro. Major effects induced by the seminal fluid of rival males were of similar magnitude to those generated by queen reproductive tract secretions, whereas own seminal fluid induced lower sperm activation levels. Our results suggest that ant sperm respond via a self-non-self recognition mechanism to similar or shared molecules expressed in the reproductive secretions of both sexes. Lower sperm motility in the presence of own seminal fluid indicates that enhanced motility is costly and may trade-off with sperm viability during sperm storage, consistent with studies in vertebrates. Our results imply that ant spermatozoa have evolved to adjust their energetic expenditure during insemination depending on the perceived level of sperm competition.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 12 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 41 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 41 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 11 27%
Student > Ph. D. Student 9 22%
Student > Bachelor 6 15%
Student > Master 4 10%
Student > Postgraduate 2 5%
Other 4 10%
Unknown 5 12%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 22 54%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 6 15%
Environmental Science 1 2%
Sports and Recreations 1 2%
Medicine and Dentistry 1 2%
Other 1 2%
Unknown 9 22%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 32. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 13 February 2019.
All research outputs
#1,251,436
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#291
of 3,714 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#27,822
of 346,639 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#7
of 58 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,714 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 346,639 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 58 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its contemporaries.