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Bunning H, Bassett L, Clowser C, et al. Dietary choice for a balanced nutrient intake increases the mean and reduces the variance in the reproductive performance of male and female cockroaches. Ecol Evol. 2016;6(14):4711-30doi: 10.1002/ece3.2243.
Bunning, H., Bassett, L., Clowser, C., Rapkin, J., Jensen, K., House, C. M., Archer, C. R., & Hunt, J. (2016). Dietary choice for a balanced nutrient intake increases the mean and reduces the variance in the reproductive performance of male and female cockroaches. Ecology and evolution, 6(14), 4711-30. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2243
Bunning, Harriet, et al. "Dietary choice for a balanced nutrient intake increases the mean and reduces the variance in the reproductive performance of male and female cockroaches." Ecology and evolution vol. 6,14 (2016): 4711-30. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2243
Bunning H, Bassett L, Clowser C, Rapkin J, Jensen K, House CM, Archer CR, Hunt J. Dietary choice for a balanced nutrient intake increases the mean and reduces the variance in the reproductive performance of male and female cockroaches. Ecol Evol. 2016 Jun 12;6(14):4711-30. doi: 10.1002/ece3.2243. eCollection 2016 Jul. PMID: 27547307; PMCID: PMC4979701.
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Ecol Evol. 2016 Jun 12;6(14):4711-30. doi: 10.1002/ece3.2243. eCollection 2016 Jul.

Dietary choice for a balanced nutrient intake increases the mean and reduces the variance in the reproductive performance of male and female cockroaches.

Ecology and evolution

Harriet Bunning, Lee Bassett, Christina Clowser, James Rapkin, Kim Jensen, Clarissa M House, Catharine R Archer, John Hunt

Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ecology and Conservation College of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Exeter Tremough Campus Penryn TR10 9EZ UK.
  2. Centre for Ecology and Conservation College of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Exeter Tremough Campus Penryn TR10 9EZ UK; Department of Entomology North Carolina State University Gardner Hall Raleigh North Carolina 27695-7613.
  3. Centre for Ecology and Conservation College of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Exeter Tremough Campus Penryn TR10 9EZ UK; MaxNetAging School Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research Konrad-Zuse-Straße 118057 Rostock Germany.

PMID: 27547307 PMCID: PMC4979701 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2243

Abstract

Sexual selection may cause dietary requirements for reproduction to diverge across the sexes and promote the evolution of different foraging strategies in males and females. However, our understanding of how the sexes regulate their nutrition and the effects that this has on sex-specific fitness is limited. We quantified how protein (P) and carbohydrate (C) intakes affect reproductive traits in male (pheromone expression) and female (clutch size and gestation time) cockroaches (Nauphoeta cinerea). We then determined how the sexes regulate their intake of nutrients when restricted to a single diet and when given dietary choice and how this affected expression of these important reproductive traits. Pheromone levels that improve male attractiveness, female clutch size and gestation time all peaked at a high daily intake of P:C in a 1:8 ratio. This is surprising because female insects typically require more P than males to maximize reproduction. The relatively low P requirement of females may reflect the action of cockroach endosymbionts that help recycle stored nitrogen for protein synthesis. When constrained to a single diet, both sexes prioritized regulating their daily intake of P over C, although this prioritization was stronger in females than males. When given the choice between diets, both sexes actively regulated their intake of nutrients at a 1:4.8 P:C ratio. The P:C ratio did not overlap exactly with the intake of nutrients that optimized reproductive trait expression. Despite this, cockroaches of both sexes that were given dietary choice generally improved the mean and reduced the variance in all reproductive traits we measured relative to animals fed a single diet from the diet choice pair. This pattern was not as strong when compared to the single best diet in our geometric array, suggesting that the relationship between nutrient balancing and reproduction is complex in this species.

Keywords: Geometric framework of nutrition; optimal foraging; pheromones; sexual selection

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