Comprehensive paternity assignment: genotype, spatial location and social status in song sparrows, Melospiza Melodia.
Comprehensive, accurate paternity assignment is critical to answering numerous questions in evolutionary ecology. Yet, most studies of species with extra-pair paternity (EPP) fail to assign sires to all offspring. Common limitations include incomplete and biased sampling of offspring and males, particularly with respect to male location and social status, potentially biasing estimated patterns of paternity. Studies that achieve comprehensive sampling and paternity assignment are therefore required. Accordingly, we genotyped virtually all males and >99% of 6-day-old offspring over 16 years in a song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) population and used three complementary statistical methodologies to attempt complete paternity assignment for all 2207 offspring. Assignments were highly consistent across maximum likelihood methods that used solely genotype data, and heuristic and integrated Bayesian analyses that included data describing individual locations. Sires were assigned to >99% of all genotyped offspring with ≥95% confidence, revealing an EPP rate of c. 28%. Extra-pair sires primarily occupied territories neighbouring their extra-pair offspring; spatial location was therefore highly informative for paternity assignment. EPP was biased towards paired territorial males, although unpaired territorial and floater males sired c. 13% of extra-pair offspring. Failing to sample and include unpaired males as candidate sires would therefore substantially reduce assignment rates. These analyses demonstrate the integration of genetic and ecological information to achieve comprehensive paternity assignment and direct biological insight, illustrate the potential biases that common forms of incomplete sampling could have on estimated patterns of EPP, and provide an essential basis for understanding the evolutionary causes and consequences of EPP.
Sardell
Rebecca J
RJ
Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, Zoology Building, University of Aberdeen, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen AB24 2TZ, UKInstitute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057, Zurich, SwitzerlandCentre for Applied Conservation Research, Forest Sciences, 2424 Main Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Keller
Lukas F
LF
Arcese
Peter
P
Bucher
Thomas
T
Reid
Jane M
JM
D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D001955:British Columbia; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005838:Genotype; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008957:Models, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D046370:Sparrows / Q000235:genetics*; D013731:Territoriality