Digest: Stabilizing selection drives sperm length divergence in promiscuous passerines

Jente Ottenburghs

doi:10.1093/evolut/qpae176

Digest: Stabilizing selection drives sperm length divergence in promiscuous passerines

Jente Ottenburghs^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/Letter to the editor › Academic

Abstract

Divergence in gametic traits can play a key role in reproductive isolation. Lifjeld et al. (2024) examined the evolution of sperm length in pairs of songbird populations at various stages along the speciation continuum. Their analyses demonstrated that sperm length diverges more rapidly in species with higher levels of female promiscuity, likely due to stabilizing selection favoring sperm cells that fit within female sperm storage structures. This divergence in sperm length may kickstart speciation in promiscuous songbirds.

Original language	English
Article number	qpae176
Pages (from-to)	324-325
Journal	Evolution
Volume	79
Issue number	2
Early online date	18 Dec 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpae176
Publication status	Published - 2025

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title = "Digest: Stabilizing selection drives sperm length divergence in promiscuous passerines",

abstract = "Divergence in gametic traits can play a key role in reproductive isolation. Lifjeld et al. (2024) examined the evolution of sperm length in pairs of songbird populations at various stages along the speciation continuum. Their analyses demonstrated that sperm length diverges more rapidly in species with higher levels of female promiscuity, likely due to stabilizing selection favoring sperm cells that fit within female sperm storage structures. This divergence in sperm length may kickstart speciation in promiscuous songbirds.",

author = "Jente Ottenburghs",

year = "2025",

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AB - Divergence in gametic traits can play a key role in reproductive isolation. Lifjeld et al. (2024) examined the evolution of sperm length in pairs of songbird populations at various stages along the speciation continuum. Their analyses demonstrated that sperm length diverges more rapidly in species with higher levels of female promiscuity, likely due to stabilizing selection favoring sperm cells that fit within female sperm storage structures. This divergence in sperm length may kickstart speciation in promiscuous songbirds.

U2 - 10.1093/evolut/qpae176

DO - 10.1093/evolut/qpae176

M3 - Comment/Letter to the editor

SN - 1558-5646

VL - 79

SP - 324

EP - 325

JO - Evolution

JF - Evolution

IS - 2

M1 - qpae176

ER -

Digest: Stabilizing selection drives sperm length divergence in promiscuous passerines

Abstract

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