Effects of inbreeding on sperm quality in Zebra Finches Taeniopygia guttata

0454953 - ÚBO 2016 ES eng A - Abstrakt
Opatová, Pavlína - Ihle, M. - Albrechtová, Jana - Tomášek, Oldřich - Kempenaers, B. - Forstmeier, W. - Albrecht, Tomáš
Effects of inbreeding on sperm quality in Zebra Finches Taeniopygia guttata.
10th conference of the European Ornithologist's Union, 24-28 August 2015, Badajoz: programme and abstracts. Badajoz: European Ornithologist's Union, 2015 - (Martin, G.; Marzal, A.). s. 017
[Conference of the European Ornithologist's Union /10./. 24.08.2015-28.08.2015, Badajoz]
Institucionální podpora: RVO:68081766
Klíčová slova: zebra finches * sperm
Kód oboru RIV: EG - Zoologie

Inbreeding and inbreeding depression - the resulting reduction of fitness due to mating between close relatives - is one of the most studied issues in biology. Inbreeding usually rebounds in fitness-related traits, such as body mass, testis weight and sperm production in various animal species. Quality of sperm is one of the most important traits because it is expected to be linked to fertilization success of males. Here, we provide comprehensive evidence for the negative effect of inbreeding on sperm traits in a passerine bird. This study was carried out with two independent captive Zebra Finch populations, one domesticated and one recently wild-derived. Morphologically normal spermatozoa did not differ in their morphological traits (the total length of sperm cell, midpiece and tail lengths) between inbred and outbred birds. However, inbreeding resulted in both lower sperm motility and a higher percentage of sperm abnormalities in sperm samples from inbred males. These effects were remarkably consistent between the domesticated and wild-derived populations. Our results show that inbreeding can have a strong negative effect on sperm phenotype and ejaculate quality in passerine birds. Future studies should examine the fitness consequences of inbreeding effects on sperm quality.
Trvalý link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0255614