Abstract
The ability to learn from experience can improve Darwinian fitness, but few studies have tested whether sexual experience enhances reproductive success. We conducted a study with wild-derived house mice (Mus musculus musculus) in which we manipulated male sexual experience and allowed females to choose between (1) a sexually experienced versus a virgin male, (2) two sexually experienced males, or (3) two virgin males (n = 60 females and 120 males). This design allowed us to test whether females are more likely to mate multiply when they encounter more virgin males, which are known to be infanticidal. We recorded females’ preference and mating behaviours, and conducted genetic paternity analyses to determine male reproductive success. We found no evidence that sexual experience influenced male mating or reproductive success, and no evidence that the number of virgin males influenced female multiple mating. Females always copulated with both males and 58% of the litters were multiple-sired. Females’ initial attraction to a male correlated with their social preferences, but neither of these preference behaviours predicted male reproductive success – raising caveats for using mating preferences as surrogates for mate choice. Male reproductive success was predicted by mating order, but unexpectedly, males that copulated first sired fewer offspring.
Highlights
Mate choice is the differential mating of females as a result of mating preferences[1] and it can involve processing and integrating information from multiple sensory modalities and other demanding cognitive tasks[2]
When females could choose between two males that differed in their sexual experience status, the proportion of offspring sired from sexually experienced versus virgin males did not differ (GLMM: z = 0.984, β = 0.278, SE = 0.282, P = 0.325, N = 15 pairs) (Fig. 4a)
We found no evidence that male sexual experience affected mating duration (LMM: t = 0.129, β = 0.119, SE = 0.921, P = 0.899, N = 15 pairs) (Fig. 4b), mating frequency (GLMM: z = −0.804, β = −0.107, SE = 0.133, P = 0.421, N = 15 pairs) (Fig. 4c) or latency to mate (LMM: t = 0.720, β = 19.133, SE = 26.563, P = 0.483, N = 15 pairs) (Fig. 4d)
Summary
Mate choice is the differential mating of females as a result of mating preferences[1] and it can involve processing and integrating information from multiple sensory modalities and other demanding cognitive tasks[2]. House mice (Mus musculus) have complex courtship behaviors, including scent-marking with volatile and non-volatile pheromones and emission of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), and there are several ways that sexual experience may influence male courtship and mating behavior (pre-copulatory sexual selection). We found that the rate of multiple-sired litters decreased over repeated trials, suggesting that females become choosier and less likely to mate multiply as they became sexually experienced Another possibility is that sexually experienced males become more successful at pre- or post-copulatory sexual selection. We experimentally manipulated the sexual experience of wild-derived male house mice (Mus musculus musculus), and we determined the effects on their mating and reproductive success in a mate choice experiment in which direct, male-male interactions were controlled. We assessed various measurements of female social preferences and conducted a detailed path analysis to determine whether and how female social preferences translated into mate choice and male reproductive success
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