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Journal of Heredity Advance Access originally published online on March 2, 2005
Journal of Heredity 2005 96(4):346-355; doi:10.1093/jhered/esi042
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© The American Genetic Association. 2005. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org.

Strong Reproductive Skew Among Males in the Multiply Mated Swordtail Xiphophorus multilineatus (Teleostei)

J. Luo, M. Sanetra, M. Schartl, and A. Meyer

From Fachbereich Biologie, Universität Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany (Luo, Sanetra, and Meyer); and Physiologische Chemie I, Biozentrum der Universität, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany (Schartl)

Address correspondence to Axel Meyer, Fachbereich Biologie, Universität Konstanz, Fach M617, Universitätsstrasse 10, 78457 Konstanz, Germany, or e-mail: axel.meyer{at}uni-konstanz.de.

Male swordtails in the genus Xiphophorus display a conspicuous ventral elongation of the caudal fin, the sword, which arose through sexual selection due to female preference. Females mate regularly and are able to store sperm for at least 6 months. If multiple mating is frequent, this would raise the intriguing question about the role of female choice and male-male competition in shaping the mating system of these fishes. Size-dependent alternate mating strategies occur in Xiphophorus; one such strategy is courtship with a sigmoid display by large dominant males, while the other is gonopodial thrusting, in which small subordinate males sneak copulations. Using microsatellite markers, we observed a frequency of multiple paternity in wild-caught Xiphophorus multilineatus in 28% of families analyzed, but the actual frequency of multiple mating suggested by the correction factor PrDM was 33%. The number of fathers contributing genetically to the brood ranged from one to three. Compared to other species in the family Poeciliidae, both frequency and degree of multiple paternity were low. Paternity was found to be highly skewed, with one male on average contributing more than 70% to the offspring. Hence in this Xiphophorus mating system, typically one male dominates and sneaker males do not appear to be particularly effective. Postcopulatory mechanisms, however, such as sperm competition, are also indicated by our data, using sex-linked phenotypes among the offspring.


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 J HeredHome page
L. W. Simmons, M. Beveridge, and J. P. Evans
Molecular Evidence for Multiple Paternity in a Feral Population of Green Swordtails
J. Hered., June 25, 2008; (2008) esn053v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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