TY - JOUR
T1 - Female extra-pair mating
T2 - adaptation or genetic constraint?
AU - Forstmeier, Wolfgang
AU - Nakagawa, Shinichi
AU - Griffith, Simon C.
AU - Kempenaers, Bart
PY - 2014/8
Y1 - 2014/8
N2 - Why do females of so many socially monogamous species regularly engage in matings outside the pair bond? This question has puzzled behavioural ecologists for more than two decades. Until recently, an adaptionist's point of view prevailed: if females actively seek extra-pair copulations, as has been observed in several species, they must somehow benefit from this behaviour. However, do they? In this review, we argue that adaptive scenarios have received disproportionate research attention, whereas nonadaptive phenomena, such as pathological polyspermy, de novo mutations, and genetic constraints, have been neglected by empiricists and theoreticians alike. We suggest that these topics deserve to be taken seriously and that future work would benefit from combining classical behavioural ecology with reproductive physiology and evolutionary genetics.
AB - Why do females of so many socially monogamous species regularly engage in matings outside the pair bond? This question has puzzled behavioural ecologists for more than two decades. Until recently, an adaptionist's point of view prevailed: if females actively seek extra-pair copulations, as has been observed in several species, they must somehow benefit from this behaviour. However, do they? In this review, we argue that adaptive scenarios have received disproportionate research attention, whereas nonadaptive phenomena, such as pathological polyspermy, de novo mutations, and genetic constraints, have been neglected by empiricists and theoreticians alike. We suggest that these topics deserve to be taken seriously and that future work would benefit from combining classical behavioural ecology with reproductive physiology and evolutionary genetics.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84904417043&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.tree.2014.05.005
DO - 10.1016/j.tree.2014.05.005
M3 - Review article
C2 - 24909948
AN - SCOPUS:84904417043
VL - 29
SP - 456
EP - 464
JO - Trends in Ecology & Evolution
JF - Trends in Ecology & Evolution
SN - 0169-5347
IS - 8
ER -