Sperm competition in golden cuttlefish Sepia esculenta: The impact of mating order and male size

Sperm competition, as the last form of male competition prior to fertilization, is an important component in the reproductive and evolutionary biology of polyandrous species. Golden cuttlefish (Sepia esculenta) is a commercially important annual cephalopod, in which females often mate with multiple males during their mating season and maintain viable sperm in their sperm storage organs for a long time. This multiple-mating system leads to male competition and ultimately sperm competition. To explore the mechanisms of sperm competition in cuttlefish, a laboratory study was conducted using three experimental approaches. First, two similar-sized males were introduced to sequentially mate with a single female (experiment 1), to investigate mating order effects on paternity. Thereafter, a four-male experiment was run (experiment 2), which again tested for mating sequence on paternal contribution. Finally, to test whether male size is a factor affecting paternity, we compared the paternity of two different-sized males that were sequentially mated with a single female (experiment 3). The paternity of the offspring was analyzed using six microsatellite DNA markers on fertilized eggs. The results revealed last-male sperm precedence in all experiments, and no effect of male size was detected. For the two-male experiment, the last male to mate had a progeny share (P2) of 42.86%–61.90%. For the four-male experiment, the last mated male had the highest progeny share (P4) with a proportion of 35.56%–43.75%. Even with differential male sizes in the two-male experiment, the last mated male retained the highest progeny share (P2, 58.33%–91.67%). This study shows a consistent pattern of last-sperm advantage across different experiments and contributes to growing research on cephalopod mating systems. Proper mating schemes should be considered during seedling production for S. esculenta to ascertain efficient resource use and genetic diversity in produced offspring.