The optimal sex ratio in cooperatively breeding populations

	The optimal sex ratio in cooperatively breeding populations
	Wang YQ 1; Li YT 1; Wang RW[*]2
刊名	CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN
	2014
卷号	59 期号:35 页码:5074-5079
关键词	Evolutionary stable strategy Cost Benefit Helper
通讯作者	ruiwukiz@hotmail.com
英文摘要	In some cooperatively breeding species, elder siblings remain within their home ranges to assist their parents in raising their younger siblings by providing protection or food. Previous attempts to model the population sex ratios of such species have assumed that helping is cost-free and only involves benefits to parents, resulting in offspring sex ratio biases towards the helping sex. However, parents may also incur costs in maintaining helpers. We incorporated costs and benefits of helping to predict the sex ratio of offspring in a theoretical model. Our model showed that the evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) sex ratio strongly depends on three parameters: (1) the average number of helpers per female; (2) the benefits that a helper brings to its mother's offspring production (MOP); and (3) the cost-benefit ratio of helping. When one sex of elder siblings provides help, the ESS sex ratio is biased towards the helping sex if MOP costs are less than the benefits, (i.e., the cost-benefit ratio <1). However, the ESS sex ratio becomes biased towards the non-helping sex if MOP costs exceed the benefits (i.e., the cost-benefit ratio >1). Additionally, our model shows that the ESS sex ratio becomes biased in favor of the more helpful sex when both male and female elder siblings provide help. These results explain why sex ratios may become biased towards the helping sex, as well as the non-helping sex, in some species.
收录类别	SCI
资助信息	This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31300318, 31170408, 71161020 and 31270433), the West Light Foundation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Special Fund for the Excellent Youth of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCX2-EW-Q-9), the Postgraduate Science Foundation of the Yunnan University (ynuy201366), the National Natural Science Foundation For Distinguished Young Scholars (31325005), and the NSFC-Yunnan United fund (U1302267).
语种	英语
WOS记录号	WOS:000344861500021
公开日期	2014-12-12
内容类型	期刊论文
源URL	[http://159.226.149.42:8088/handle/152453/8193]
专题	昆明动物研究所_实验与理论生态学昆明动物研究所_遗传资源与进化国家重点实验室
作者单位	1.Y. Wang ? Y. Li School of Mathematics and Statistics, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China 2.State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Ecology, Conservation, and Environment Center, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Wang YQ,Li YT,Wang RW[*]. The optimal sex ratio in cooperatively breeding populations[J]. CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN,2014,59(35):5074-5079.
APA	Wang YQ,Li YT,&Wang RW[*].(2014).The optimal sex ratio in cooperatively breeding populations.CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN,59(35),5074-5079.
MLA	Wang YQ,et al."The optimal sex ratio in cooperatively breeding populations".CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN 59.35(2014):5074-5079.