The empirical study of the role of sperm competition in the evolution of sexual traits has historically been problematic through the inability either to measure sperm competition levels directly in the present or to reconstruct changes in the evolutionary past. Here, we develop and test a procedure based on paternity data that potentially permits both. For our pilot study, we use the rate of change of the seminal protein gene SEMG2 for catarrhine primates published by Dorus et al. (Nat Genet 36:1326–1329, 2004). From their data, Dorus et al. proposed a two-part hypothesis: (1) sperm competition plays a role in the evolution of the SEMG2 gene and (2) higher levels of sperm competition generate more positive selection for change in SEMG2 than lower levels. Dorus et al. were limited, however, by being able to use only proxy measures of sperm competition and only seven “recent” segments of catarrhine primate phylogeny. Here, we develop a “timeline procedure” that permits the Dorus hypothesis to be tested using data from across the whole of catarrhine phylogeny. Our analysis supports part (1) of the Dorus hypothesis but questions part (2), suggesting instead that changes in level of sperm competition have a more powerful influence on the rate of evolution of traits than the level of sperm competition itself. We conclude that the timeline procedure developed here could be a valuable investigative tool in the role of sperm competition in the evolution of sexual traits measured over evolutionary time such as SEMG2. The empirical study of the role of sperm competition in the evolution of sexual traits has historically been problematic through the inability to measure sperm competition levels directly in the present and to reconstruct changes in the evolutionary past. Here, we test a “timeline procedure” based on paternity data that potentially permits both. For our pilot study, we use the rate of change of the seminal protein gene SEMG2 for catarrhine primates published by Dorus et al. (Nat Genet 36:1326–1329, 2004). Whereas Dorus et al. were limited to using proxy measures for only “recent” segments of catarrhine primate phylogeny, our method permits direct measures of sperm competition to be applied across the whole of Catarrhine phylogeny. We conclude that this new procedure could be valuable for investigation of the role of sperm competition in the evolution of a wide range of sexual traits.

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使用亲子鉴定数据测试精子竞争在性特征进化中的作用的时间表程序的开发、评估和说明

关于精子竞争在性特征进化中的作用的实证研究在历史上一直存在问题，因为无法直接测量当前的精子竞争水平或重建过去进化中的变化。在这里，我们开发并测试了一个基于亲子关系数据的程序，该程序可能允许这两种情况。在我们的试点研究中，我们使用 Dorus 等人发表的卡他林灵长类动物精液蛋白基因 SEMG2 的变化率。(Nat Genet 36:1326–1329, 2004)。根据他们的数据，Dorus 等人。提出了一个由两部分组成的假设：（1）精子竞争在 SEMG2 基因的进化中发挥作用，（2）较高水平的精子竞争比较低水平产生对 SEMG2 变化更积极的选择。多鲁斯等人。是有限的，但是，通过只能使用精子竞争的代理措施和卡他林灵长类动物系统发育的七个“最近”部分。在这里，我们开发了一个“时间线程序”，允许使用来自整个卡他林系统发育的数据来测试 Dorus 假设。我们的分析支持 Dorus 假设的第 (1) 部分，但对第 (2) 部分提出质疑，相反，这表明精子竞争水平的变化对性状进化速度的影响比精子竞争水平本身的影响更大。我们得出的结论是，这里开发的时间线程序可能是一个有价值的调查工具，用于研究精子竞争在性特征进化过程中的作用，如 SEMG2。精子竞争在性特征进化中的作用的实证研究在历史上一直存在问题，因为无法直接测量当前的精子竞争水平并重建过去进化中的变化。在这里，我们测试了一个基于亲子关系数据的“时间线程序”，它可能允许两者兼而有之。在我们的试点研究中，我们使用 Dorus 等人发表的卡他林灵长类动物精液蛋白基因 SEMG2 的变化率。(Nat Genet 36:1326–1329, 2004)。而多鲁斯等人。仅限于仅对卡他林灵长类系统发育的“最近”部分使用代理测量，我们的方法允许在整个卡他林系统发育中应用精子竞争的直接测量。