Abstract
Understanding life history variation and strategies is crucial for stock assessment and fisheries management due to the direct effects on population dynamics, effective population size, sex-ratios, levels of inbreeding, and relatedness among individuals. Aristeus antennatus (En ─ Blue and red shrimp; Fr ─ Crevette rouge; Sp ─ Gamba rosada) is one of the most exploited demersal resources in the Western Mediterranean Sea. However, information regarding the mating system and mate choice preferences remains largely unknown. Advances in molecular genetic markers and methods of inferring biological relationships among individuals have facilitated new insights into the reproductive dynamics of the species in the wild. Here, we used microsatellite markers to examine the A. antennatus mating system and putative mate choice preferences. Our results provided clear evidence of polyandry and polygyny. Relatedness analyses, together with FST and DAPC values showed females exhibited a mating bias towards unrelated males. Mating males were inferred from spermatophores and suggested males were sympatric with females and were also from other spawning grounds. Our findings provided the first description of the reproductive behavior of blue and red shrimp.
Highlights
Mating systems have numerous implications for the ecology and evolution of species due to the effects on population dynamics, effective population size (Ne), levels of inbreeding, and relatedness among individuals[1,2]
Following Bonferroni corrections, significant genotypic deviations from Hardy-Weinberg expectations (HW) expectations were observed at eight loci in male and female groups and seven in spermatophores
The results of our study showed a mean number of alleles per locus (9.38) (Table 2) in A. antennatus lower than the value reported in Italian blue and red shrimp samples (13.5)[48]
Summary
Mating systems have numerous implications for the ecology and evolution of species due to the effects on population dynamics, effective population size (Ne), levels of inbreeding, and relatedness among individuals[1,2]. A variety of basic mating patterns are described for crustaceans updated in[4], including exploited marine species These studies have often focused on reproductive morphological traits, size and age at first maturity, and fecundity or spawning frequency[3,5]. Loyau et al.[13] reported inconsistent results in Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen, 1830), where a reduction of offspring viability was observed when mating occurred between unrelated individuals Such outbreeding depression resulted from breaking apart co-adapted beneficial gene complexes or local genetic adaptations[13]. Spermatophores are lost at each molt[25], so the high molt activity observed in A. antennatus females from May to September suggests mating might occur several times each reproductive season[26]. More details on how fertilization occurs remain unknown, but undoubtedly it happens in open waters and parental care is absent[27], which complicates mating system determination
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