Antioxidants, showy males and sperm quality

被引:107
作者
Blount, JD
Moller, AP
Houston, DC
机构
[1] Univ Glasgow, Inst Biomed & Life Sci, Ornithol Grp, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Lanark, Scotland
[2] Univ Paris 06, CNRS, UMR 7625, Ecol Lab, F-75252 Paris 05, France
关键词
antioxidants; fertility; free radicals; ornamental display; oxidative stress;
D O I
10.1046/j.1461-0248.2001.00255.x
中图分类号
Q14 [生态学(生物生态学)];
学科分类号
071012 ; 0713 ;
摘要
The fertility of males sometimes correlates with their ornamental display, but we do not have a mechanistic explanation to universally link these traits. We suggest that both sperm quality (fertility; integrity of DNA), and the substrates responsible for male ornamentation, may be vulnerable to free radical attack, which can be mitigated by antioxidants. Support for these ideas is at present weak, and requires validation in ecological contexts. We hypothesize that a link between ornamentation and sperm quality could arise if antioxidants are in limited supply, and the showiest males may be preferred because they are most likely to be fertile, or to provide sperm with undamaged genotypes that could give rise to fit offspring.
引用
收藏
页码:393 / 396
页数:4
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