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Review
. 2019 May;28(3):114-125.
doi: 10.1002/evan.21776. Epub 2019 Apr 6.

Male-mediated prenatal loss: Functions and mechanisms

Matthew N Zipple  1 , Eila K Roberts  2 , Susan C Alberts  1   3   4 , Jacinta C Beehner  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Male-mediated prenatal loss: Functions and mechanisms

Matthew N Zipple et al. Evol Anthropol. 2019 May.

Abstract

Sexually selected infanticide has been the subject of intense empirical and theoretical study for decades; a related phenomenon, male-mediated prenatal loss, has received much less attention in evolutionary studies. Male-mediated prenatal loss occurs when inseminated or pregnant females terminate reproductive effort following exposure to a nonsire male, either through implantation failure or pregnancy termination. Male-mediated prenatal loss encompasses two sub-phenomena: sexually selected feticide and the Bruce effect. In this review, we provide a framework that explains the relationship between feticide and the Bruce effect and describes what is known about the proximate and ultimate mechanisms involved in each. Using a simple model, we demonstrate that male-mediated prenatal loss can provide greater reproductive benefits to males than infanticide. We therefore suggest that, compared to infanticide, male-mediated prenatal loss may be more prevalent in mammalian species and may have played a greater role in their social evolution than has previously been documented.

Keywords: Bruce effect; feticide; implantation failure; pregnancy block; pregnancy disruption; pregnancy failure; pregnancy interruption; pregnancy termination; reproductive failure.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Summary of the (non-mutually exclusive) mechanisms involved in male-mediated prenatal loss in mammals. The “external cue” refers to the sensory stimulus that interferes with pregnancy. The “internal mechanism” refers to what we currently know about the neuroendocrine response to the external cue. See text for more details.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
(A) Averaged across all group sizes, feticide yields equal or greater reproductive benefits than inaction, random aggression, or infanticide in 96.1% of simulations. Reproductive benefits attained by each strategy are cyclical with a period matching the 21-month interbirth interval in the simulation. (B) When females display post-partum estrus, males gain no benefit from infanticide, but benefit from feticide.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Hypothesized relationships between social characteristics of mammalian species and the evolution of male-mediated prenatal loss.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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