Sophisticated sperm allocation in male fowl

When a female is sexually promiscuous, the ejaculates of different males compete for the fertilization of her eggs; the more sperm a male inseminates into a female, the more likely he is to fertilize her eggs. Because sperm production is limited and costly, theory predicts that males will strategically allocate sperm (1) according to female promiscuity, (2) saving some for copulations with new females, and (3) to females producing more and/or better offspring. Whether males allocate sperm in all of these ways is not known, particularly in birds where the collection of natural ejaculates only recently became possible. Here we demonstrate male sperm allocation of unprecedented sophistication in the fowl Gallus gallus. Males show status-dependent sperm investment in females according to the level of female promiscuity; they progressively reduce sperm investment in a particular female but, on encountering a new female, instantaneously increase their sperm investment; and they preferentially allocate sperm to females with large sexual ornaments signalling superior maternal investment. Our results indicate that female promiscuity leads to the evolution of sophisticated male sexual behaviour.     

Egg investment is influenced by male attractiveness in the mallard

Why females prefer to copulate with particular males is a contentious issue. Attention is currently focused on whether females choose males on the basis of their genetic quality, in order to produce more viable offspring. Support for this hypothesis in birds has come from studies showing that preferred males tend to father offspring of better condition or with increased survivorship. Before attributing greater offspring viability to a male's heritable genetic quality, however, it is important to discount effects arising from confounding sources, including maternal effects. This has generally been addressed by comparing offspring viability from two different breeding attempts by the same female: one when offspring are sired by a preferred male, and one when offspring are sired by a less preferred male. However, here we show that individual female mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) lay larger eggs after copulating with preferred males and smaller eggs after copulating with less preferred males. As a result, females produced offspring of better body condition when paired with preferred males. After controlling for these differences in maternal investment, we found no effect of paternity on offspring condition. This shows that differences between half-sibs cannot always be attributed to paternal or maternal genetic effects.     

Adaptive variation in environmental and genetic sex determination in a fish

Two general mechanisms of sex determination have been identified among gonochoristic vertebrates: environmental sex determination where offspring become male or female in response to an environmental factor(s) during development (for example, some fishes and reptiles); and genetic sex determination where sex is determined by genotype at conception (as in birds and mammals). How do these sex-determining systems evolve? Direct evidence is virtually non-existent because the sex-determining systems of most species appear to have little genetic variation. Here we provide the first evidence of adaptive variation in environmental and genetic sex determination within a species. We show that in a fish with temperature-dependent sex determination, populations at different latitudes compensate for differences in thermal environment and seasonality by adjusting the response of sex ratio to temperature, and by altering the level of environmental as opposed to genetic control. The adjustments observed are precisely those predicted by adaptive sex ratio theory.     

(Hemiculter leucisculus)性腺发育的组织学研究

研究了广东北江流域鳘的繁殖生物学,结果表明:鳘雌雄的初次性成熟年龄是1年,在生殖季节可凭"追星"等副性征辨别雌雄.性成熟后,性腺具有周年变化规律,卵子发育为非同步的,产卵期为4月至7月.     

Paternal inheritance of a female moth's mating preference

Females of the arctiid moth Utetheisa ornatrix mate preferentially with larger males, receiving both direct phenotypic and indirect genetic benefits. Here we demonstrate that the female's mating preference is inherited through the father rather than the mother, indicating that the preference gene or genes lie mostly or exclusively on the Z sex chromosome, which is strictly paternally inherited by daughters. Furthermore, we show that the preferred male trait and the female preference for that trait are correlated, as females with larger fathers have a stronger preference for larger males. These findings are predicted by the protected invasion theory, which asserts that male homogametic sex chromosome systems (ZZ/ZW) found in lepidopterans and birds promote the evolution of exaggerated male traits through sexual selection. Specifically, the theory predicts that, because female preference alleles arising on the Z chromosome are transmitted to all sons that have the father's attractive trait rather than to only a fraction of the sons, such alleles will experience stronger positive selection and be less vulnerable to chance loss than would autosomal alleles.     

白腰文鸟（Lonchura striata）繁殖行为的观察和雏鸟食性的分析

2005年3—5月，在四川省南充市高校校园内及附近区域对白腰文鸟繁殖期的求偶、选巢址、筑巢、产卵、孵卵、育雏行为进行较为详细的观察．通过繁殖期的行为观察，初步对野外的雌雄鸟作了判别．观察了易卵、易雏时亲鸟的行为变化．将15日龄雏鸟移出巢外，观察了亲鸟的喂雏方式和系列动作．采用扎颈法观察分析雏鸟的食性．     

Sex differences in emigration and mortality affect optimal management of deer populations

Populations of red deer that are limited by food, like those of many other ungulates, commonly include more females than males. We assessed the contribution of variation in sex- and age-specific rates of mortality and emigration to density-dependent changes in the adult sex ratio, using long-term observations and demographic experiments involving the red deer population on Rum, Scotland. We incorporated these effects in a stochastic model of local populations under different management regimes to show here that, when female numbers are allowed to increase to more than 60% of the ecological carrying capacity, the sustainable annual harvest of males from local deer populations will fall. Because males are typically culled by fee-paying hunters and generate more income than females, income will decrease as the male harvest falls. Because numbers of female deer throughout much of the Highlands probably exceed the threshold at which male density starts to be affected, many managers might be able to raise income from local deer populations by reducing female numbers, with potential benefits to the vegetation of Scottish Highland environments.     

The genetic basis of Haldane's rule

'Haldane's rule', formulated by J. B. S. Haldane in 1922, states that: "When in the F1 offspring of two different animal races one sex is absent, rare, or sterile, that sex is the heterozygous [heterogametic] sex". His rule is now known to apply in mammals, lepidopterans, birds, orthopterans and dipterans. In Drosophila, for example, Bock cites 142 cases of interspecific hybridizations that produce one sterile and one fertile sex in the offspring, all but one of these crosses yielding sterile XY males and fertile XX females. Despite much speculation, however, the genetic basis of Haldane's rule remains unknown. Haldane himself rejected the simple explanation that males are innately more sensitive than females to the effects of hybridization because groups with heterogametic females (such as birds and butterflies) usually show female sterility in hybrids, so that heterogamety itself is the critical feature. He and others suggested that heterogametic infertility or inviability in hybrids arises by a genetic imbalance between X chromosomes and autosomes. An alternative explanation is that this syndrome is caused by a mismatch of X and Y chromosomes. Here I show that in the Drosophila melanogaster subgroup, Haldane's rule for fertility apparently arises from a genetic interaction between X and Y chromosomes and not from an imbalance between sex chromosomes and autosomes. This finding has important implications for understanding the evolution of interspecific reproductive isolation.     

雌雄构树过氧化物同工酶的比较研究

通过对成林及未知性别的幼株过氧化物同工酶谱的分析表明，酶谱从阴极到阳极均可分为３个区．成株雌雄株间的性别差异明显而稳定地反映在Ｂ区和Ｃ区；未知性别的幼株分为Ｃ区具有谱带和不具谱带两种酶谱类型，且与成株的酶谱有密切的相关性．可以认为，过氧化物同工酶可以作为构树早期性别鉴定的指标，用于幼株的早期性别鉴定．酶活性在性别间也有不同，表现为雌株高于雄株，与酶带数量及强度基本一致．     

Clonal reproduction by males and females in the little fire ant

Sexual reproduction can lead to major conflicts between sexes and within genomes. Here we report an extreme case of such conflicts in the little fire ant Wasmannia auropunctata. We found that sterile workers are produced by normal sexual reproduction, whereas daughter queens are invariably clonally produced. Because males usually develop from unfertilized maternal eggs in ants and other haplodiploid species, they normally achieve direct fitness only through diploid female offspring. Hence, although the clonal production of queens increases the queen's relatedness to reproductive daughters, it potentially reduces male reproductive success to zero. In an apparent response to this conflict between sexes, genetic analyses reveal that males reproduce clonally, most likely by eliminating the maternal half of the genome in diploid eggs. As a result, all sons have nuclear genomes identical to those of their father. The obligate clonal production of males and queens from individuals of the same sex effectively results in a complete separation of the male and female gene pools. These findings show that the haplodiploid sex-determination system provides grounds for the evolution of extraordinary genetic systems and new types of sexual conflict.     

朱鹮的染色体性别鉴定及核型分析

利用羽髓细胞短期培养、空气干燥制片、Giemsa染色,做了朱鹮的核型和性别鉴定.染色体2n=68,10对大染色体,其余为小染色体,一对性染色体,雌性为ZW,雄性为ZZ,W染色体长度约为Z染色体的一半.     

家兔性别与体温变化对热原检测结果的影响

目的对普通级家兔的体温变化范围、雌雄家兔间体温变化的差异进行统计,分析家兔性别是否对热原检测结果产生影响。方法按照中国生物制品规程(2000年版)中对热原检测的规定,对实验家兔体温进行测定。结果预检体温结果显示雌性家兔平均体温较雄性家兔体温偏高约0.4℃,且存在显著性差异(P<0.05)。在检测实验中由雌性体温波动导致检测结果为复试的与由雄性体温波动引起需复试的比例约为6∶1。结论雌性家兔在基础体温和体温波动幅度上都高于雄性家兔,且稳定性较雄性差。雌性家兔更易导致检测结果出现偏差。     

垂柳(Salix babylonica L.)雌雄植株的早期鉴别

用聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳法对已经开花的垂柳植株和经扦插由营养枝转变为幼苗状态的不同性别植株进行了过氧化物酶同工酶的测定,发现在每月份内成年雄株的过氧化物酶同工酶带均多于雌株,而幼苗状态的植株在该种的开花季节同工酶谱带的状况与成年株相似,雄株明显多于雌株,在其余月份里差别不显著,只在A区内,雄株有一条活性很弱的酶带,而雌株中缺失。实验表明过氧化物酶同工酶可以作为鉴别垂柳苗木雌雄性别的生化指标,但在该种的开花季节内较明显。     

垂柳(Salix babylonica L.)雌雄植株的早期鉴别

用聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳法对已经开花的垂柳植株和经扦插由营养枝转变为幼苗状态的不同性别植株进行了过氧化物酶同工酶的测定,发现在每月份内成年雄株的过氧化物酶同工酶带均多于雌株,而幼苗状态的植株在该种的开花季节同工酶谱带的状况与成年株相似,雄株明显多于雌株,在其余月份里差别不显著,只在A区内,雄株有一条活性很弱的酶带,而雌株中缺失。实验表明过氧化物酶同工酶可以作为鉴别垂柳苗木雌雄性别的生化指标,但在该种的开花季节内较明显。     

衢州中国石龙子形态特征和雌体繁殖输出

通过报道浙江衢州中国石龙子成体形态特征的两性异形和雌体繁殖输出，测定了雌雄两性个体的体长、体重、头长和头宽、附肢长和腹长，除腹长无显著两性差异外，其他形态特征均表现为雄性个体大于雌性个体。衢州种群雌体年产单窝卵，平均窝卵数，窝卵重和平均卵重分别为16．8，8．767g和0．589g．     

松材线虫性别决定基因Bx-sex-1表达特征和生物学功能分析

【目的】揭示松材线虫(Bursaphelenchus xylophilus)性别决定基因Bx-sex-1的表达特征和生物学功能。【方法】通过Mega 6中的Jones-Taylor-Thornton (JTT)模型,采用邻接法(neighbor joining,NJ)对Bx-sex-1和其他线虫的氨基酸序列进行系统发育构建。采用同步培养的方法分别收集不同龄期的松材线虫并提取总RNA,反转录获得cDNA并采用实时荧光定量PCR (qRT-PCR) 的方法,研究Bx-sex-1在松材线虫不同发育阶段的相对表达量。同时采用qRT-PCR并通过绝对定量法分析Bx-sex-1基因在雌虫和雄虫基因组的拷贝数。采用dsRNA浸泡法对目的基因进行干扰,观察松材线虫后代卵的孵化率和雌雄比的变化。【结果】系统进化树显示松材线虫Bx-sex-1和其他两个植物寄生线虫成为一支,与自由生线虫和寄生动物线虫分别进化为不同的分支。松材线虫Bx-sex-1在不同发育阶段相对表达量有差异,在卵期相对表达量最高,而在2龄幼虫时期最低,从2龄幼虫时期到成虫时期相对表达量逐渐升高。qRT-PCR结果显示Bx-sex-1基因在雌虫和雄虫基因组中均为单拷贝。Bx-sex-1被干扰后,卵的孵化率下降,雌雄比降低。【结论】松材线虫Bx-sex-1基因在卵的发育过程和性别决定中可能具有重要作用。     

Fisher′s判别分析在性别鉴定中的应用

本文对57例(男36,女21)国人髋骨进行了16个项目的测量,并进行了性别判别分析。研究结果表明:16个测量项目中有6项判别效果较好。本文采用Fisher's判别分析建立了4个性别判别函数,判别率达90％以上。     

布氏田鼠适应性产热的性别差异

不同季节的不同光周期、褪黑激素和温度对布氏四鼠的体重、体温、以及RMR和NST均有不同程度的影响,除体温外,均有明显的性别差异,说明雌雄动物适应性产热能力和产热调控机制存在着差异。