5) Big sperm are energetically costly, and species that produce large sperm have

Question

5) Big sperm are energetically costly, and species that produce large sperm have delayed age at maturity in Drosophila (see graph below from an early paper by Pitnick et al PNAS '95) Based on this observation explain: 0.06 0.05 ,-0.04 0.03 8 0.02 0.01 0.0 0.01 -0.02 A) What you would expect to happen if longer female SV did not select for longer sperm? B) Do you expect male Drosophila in high predation environments to evolve long sperm (as compared to low predation environments)? Justify your answers. Tv … 0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 Residual contrasts in sperm length

Explanation / Answer

A. If longer female SV did not select for longer sperm, males reaching early sexual maturity (corresponding to shorter sperm) would increase in the population.

B. The long sperm-producing males, which reach sexual maturity later, will be at a disadvantage than short sperm-producing males, which reach sexual maturity early, in high predation environments because of the risk of dying before reaching sexual maturity. Hence, it is very unlikely that male Drosophila would evolve long sperm in such environments.

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