Sexual selection affects the sizes of the mammalian prostate gland and seminal vesicles

Abstract

Abstract The accessory reproductive glands of male mammals contribute the bulk of the secretions in which spermatozoa are transported to the female tract during copulation. Despite their morphological diversity, and the chemical complexity of their products, little is known about the possible effects of sexual selection upon these glands in mammals. Here we consider the seminal vesicles and prostate glands in a sample of 89 species and 60 genera representing 8 Orders of mammals. The sizes of the accessory glands are analysed in relation to body weight and testes weight. Both the seminal vesicles size and prostate size (corrected for body weight) correlate positively with relative testes size in this sample; this finding remains highly significant after application of procedures to correct for possible phylogenetic biases in the data set. The accessory reproductive glands are also significantly larger in those mammals which have large relative testes sizes, and in which the likelihood of sperm competition is greatest. These results support the hypothesis that sexual selection has played an important role in the evolution of the mammalian prostate gland and seminal vesicles.