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Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access originally published online on March 29, 2006
Integrative and Comparative Biology 2006 46(3):298-311; doi:10.1093/icb/icj025
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© The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology 2006. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

The relationship between egg size and fertilization success in broadcast-spawning marine invertebrates

Don R. Levitan
Department of Biological Science, Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306-1100

Correspondence: 1E-mail: levitan{at}bio.fsu.edu

Egg size is a critical life-history trait because it can profoundly influence offspring fitness and the number of offspring that can be produced. Recently, interest has grown in how egg size influences fertilization rate and in turn how sperm availability might influence the evolution of egg size among broadcast-spawning marine invertebrates. In this article I review the empirical evidence on the ways in which egg size and egg accessory structures influence fertilization and theoretical models of the ways sperm availability might influence the evolution of egg size. Evidence suggests that egg size does influence the collision frequency with sperm, and models suggest that sperm availability can influence selection on egg size. Sperm availability appears to be one of the several factors that influence optimal egg size in broadcast-spawning marine invertebrates.


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 Biol. Bull.Home page
A. L. Moran and J. D. Allen
How Does Metabolic Rate Scale With Egg Size? An Experimental Test With Sea Urchin Embryos
Biol. Bull., April 1, 2007; 212(2): 143 - 150.
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