title: Inbreeding depression of sperm traits in the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata.
abstract: Inbreeding depression, or the reduction in fitness due to mating between close relatives, is a key issue in biology today. Inbreeding negatively affects many fitness-related traits, including survival and reproductive success. Despite this, very few studies have quantified the effects of inbreeding on vertebrate gamete traits under controlled breeding conditions using a full-sib mating approach. Here, we provide comprehensive evidence for the negative effect of inbreeding on sperm traits in a bird, the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata. We compared sperm characteristics of both inbred (pedigree F = 0.25) and outbred (pedigree F = 0) individuals from two captive populations, one domesticated and one recently wild-derived, raised under standardized conditions. As normal spermatozoa morphology did not differ consistently between inbred and outbred individuals, our study confirms the hypothesis that sperm morphology is not particularly susceptible to inbreeding depression. Inbreeding did, however, lead to significantly lower sperm motility and a substantially higher percentage of abnormal spermatozoa in ejaculate. These results were consistent across both study populations, confirming the generality and reliability of our findings.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic v.v.i. Květná 8CZ-603 65 Brno Czech Republic; Department of Botany and Zoology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlářská 267/2CZ-61137 Brno Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Pavlína
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Opatová
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics Max Planck Institute for Ornithology Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse 7 82319 Seewiesen Germany.
authors.forename: Malika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ihle
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic v.v.i. Květná 8CZ-603 65 Brno Czech Republic; Charles University in Prague Faculty of Sciences Department of Zoology Viničná 7CZ-12844 Prague Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Albrechtová
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic v.v.i. Květná 8CZ-603 65 Brno Czech Republic; Charles University in Prague Faculty of Sciences Department of Zoology Viničná 7CZ-12844 Prague Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Oldřich
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tomášek
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics Max Planck Institute for Ornithology Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse 7 82319 Seewiesen Germany.
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kempenaers
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics Max Planck Institute for Ornithology Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse 7 82319 Seewiesen Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Forstmeier
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic v.v.i. Květná 8CZ-603 65 Brno Czech Republic; Charles University in Prague Faculty of Sciences Department of Zoology Viničná 7CZ-12844 Prague Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Tomáš
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Albrecht
keywords: Gamete performance; genetic quality; sperm abnormality; sperm morphology; sperm velocity
references.citation: Br Poult Sci. 1999 May;40(2):203-8
references.pmid: 10465386
references.citation: Heredity (Edinb). 1999 Sep;83 ( Pt 3):260-70
references.pmid: 10504423
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 2000 May 7;267(1446):875-82
references.pmid: 10853729
references.citation: Mol Ecol. 2002 Nov;11(11):2195-212
references.pmid: 12406233
references.citation: Biol Reprod. 2005 Apr;72(4):822-9
references.pmid: 15576823
references.citation: Nature. 2005 Mar 17;434(7031):383-7
references.pmid: 15772662
references.citation: Theriogenology. 2006 Apr 1;65(6):1159-70
references.pmid: 16165199
references.citation: Curr Biol. 2006 Mar 21;16(6):612-7
references.pmid: 16546087
references.citation: Trends Ecol Evol. 2005 Jan;20(1):46-53
references.pmid: 16701340
references.citation: Theriogenology. 1982 Apr;17(4):445-52
references.pmid: 16725708
references.citation: Curr Biol. 2006 Sep 19;16(18):R790-1; author reply R791-2
references.pmid: 16979542
references.citation: PLoS One. 2007 May 02;2(5):e413
references.pmid: 17476335
references.citation: Mol Ecol. 2007 Oct;16(19):4039-50
references.pmid: 17894758
references.citation: Evolution. 2008 Feb;62(2):494-9
references.pmid: 18070085
references.citation: Mol Ecol. 2008 Jan;17(1):334-43
references.pmid: 18173505
references.citation: Evolution. 2008 Jun;62(6):1538-43
references.pmid: 18384656
references.citation: BMC Evol Biol. 2008 Dec 16;8:332
references.pmid: 19087292
references.citation: Biol Lett. 2009 Jun 23;5(3):320-3
references.pmid: 19324650
references.citation: J Evol Biol. 2009 Jun;22(6):1338-45
references.pmid: 19344380
references.citation: Nat Rev Genet. 2009 Nov;10(11):783-96
references.pmid: 19834483
references.citation: Ecol Lett. 2010 Feb;13(2):213-22
references.pmid: 20059524
references.citation: Poult Sci. 2010 Apr;89(4):658-67
references.pmid: 20308397
references.citation: Reprod Domest Anim. 2011 Feb;46(1):e102-4
references.pmid: 20546181
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 2010 Nov 22;277(1699):3483-91
references.pmid: 20554548
references.citation: Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2010 Nov;85(4):935-56
references.pmid: 20569253
references.citation: PLoS One. 2010 Oct 18;5(10):e13456
references.pmid: 20976147
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Mar 29;108(13):5325-30
references.pmid: 21402912
references.citation: Ecol Evol. 2013 Jul;3(7):2089-102
references.pmid: 23919154
references.citation: Ecol Evol. 2013 Dec;3(15):4940-53
references.pmid: 24455127
references.citation: J Evol Biol. 2014 Jun;27(6):992-1011
references.pmid: 24820115
references.citation: Front Genet. 2014 Sep 22;5:333
references.pmid: 25295053
references.citation: Heredity (Edinb). 2015 Apr;114(4):397-403
references.pmid: 25585923
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 2015 Jan 22;282(1799):20141897
references.pmid: 25621327
references.citation: Evolution. 1997 Jun;51(3):937-945
references.pmid: 28568571
references.citation: J Theor Biol. 1982 May 21;96(2):281-94
references.pmid: 7121030
references.citation: Science. 1994 Dec 2;266(5190):1578-81
references.pmid: 7985030
references.citation: Int J Dev Biol. 1996 Feb;40(1):379-83
references.pmid: 8735951