The Quarterly Review of Biology | 2019
Mathematical Models of Fertilization—An Eco-Evolutionary Perspective
Abstract
AbstractMathematical models of fertilization have been developed for many taxa, for both external and internal fertilizers. They estimate the proportion or number of fertilized gametes based on gamete concentrations and parameters relating to the biology of the model organism, as well as serve multiple purposes: a predictive purpose, with applications in, for example, artificial insemination; they clarify causal components of fertilization success such as concentration, size, collision rates and swimming speed of gametes, and polyspermy block times; and they function as components of models in evolutionary ecology, which often require understanding of fitness consequences of resource allocation between gametes and other traits. We pay particular attention to this last category, which has received less attention than other uses. Many evolutionary models assume the simplest relationship between fertilization success and gamete numbers: all eggs are fertilized. In nature, however, it is not uncommon for eggs...