Life history trade-offs at a single locus maintain sexually selected genetic variation

AbstractA central paradigm of life-history theory is the existence of resource mediated trade-offs among different traits that contribute to fitness, yet observations inconsistent with this tenet are not uncommon. We previously found a clonal population of the aphid Myzus persicae to exhibit positive genetic correlations among major components of fitness, resulting in strong heritable fitness differences on a common host. This raises the question of how this genetic variation is maintained. One hypothesis states that variation for resource acquisition on different hosts may override variation for allocation, predicting strong fitness differences within hosts as a rule, but changes in fitness hierarchies across hosts due to trade-offs. Therefore, we carried out a life-table experiment with 17 clones of M. persicae, reared on three unrelated host plants: radish, common lambsquarters and black nightshade. We estimated the broad-sense heritabilities of six life-history traits on each host, the genetic correlations among traits within hosts, and the genetic correlations among traits on different hosts (cross-environment genetic correlations). The three plants represented radically different environments with strong effects on performance of M. persicae, yet we detected little evidence for trade-offs. Fitness components were positively correlated within hosts but also between the two more benign hosts (radish and lambsquarters), as well as between those and another host tested earlier. The comparison with the most stressful host, nightshade, was hampered by low survival. Survival on nightshade also exhibited genetic variation but was unrelated to fitness on other hosts. Acknowledging that the number of environments was necessarily limited in a quantitative genetic experiment, we suggest that the rather consistent fitness hierarchies across very different plants provided little evidence to support the idea that the clonal variation for life-history traits and their covariance structure are maintained by strong genotype×environment interactions with respect to hosts. Alternative explanations are discussed.

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Female Life-History Trade-Offs and the Maintenance of Genetic Variation in Drosophila melanogaster

The American Naturalist ◽

10.1086/698727 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 192 (4) ◽

pp. 448-460

Author(s):

Devin Arbuthnott

Keyword(s):

Drosophila Melanogaster ◽

Genetic Variation ◽

Life History ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Female Life History

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Experimentally increased costs of parental care are shunted to offspring in species with extended care

10.32942/osf.io/y8wx4 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Gretchen F. Wagner ◽

Emeline Mourocq ◽

Michael Griesser

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Parental Care ◽

Total Duration ◽

Bird Species ◽

Life History Strategy ◽

Experimental Treatment ◽

Cost Of Care ◽

Adult Survival ◽

Supporting Evidence ◽

Trade Offs

Biparental care systems are a valuable model to examine conflict, cooperation, and coordination between unrelated individuals, as the product of the interactions between the parents influences the fitness of both individuals. A common experimental technique for testing coordinated responses to changes in the costs of parental care is to temporarily handicap one parent, inducing a higher cost of providing care. However, dissimilarity in experimental designs of these studies has hindered interspecific comparisons of the patterns of cost distribution between parents and offspring. Here we apply a comparative experimental approach by handicapping a parent at nests of five bird species using the same experimental treatment. In some species, a decrease in care by a handicapped parent was compensated by its partner, while in others the increased costs of care were shunted to the offspring. Parental responses to an increased cost of care primarily depended on the total duration of care that offspring require. However, life history pace (i.e., adult survival and fecundity) did not influence parental decisions when faced with a higher cost of caring. Our study highlights that a greater attention to intergenerational trade-offs is warranted, particularly in species with a large burden of parental care. Moreover, we demonstrate that parental care decisions may be weighed more against physiological workload constraints than against future prospects of reproduction, supporting evidence that avian species may devote comparable amounts of energy into survival, regardless of life history strategy.

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The intrinsic mechanism of life history trade-offs: The mediating role of control striving

Acta Psychologica Sinica ◽

10.3724/sp.j.1041.2017.00783 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 49 (6) ◽

pp. 783 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yan WANG ◽

Zhenchao LIN ◽

Bowen HOU ◽

Shijin SUN

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Intrinsic Mechanism ◽

Control Striving

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Hormones and Behavior

The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioral Endocrinology ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190649739.013.2 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 11-26

Author(s):

Maren N. Vitousek ◽

Laura A. Schoenle

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Life Histories ◽

Life History Traits ◽

Developmental Plasticity ◽

Endocrine System ◽

Phenotypic Traits ◽

Social Environments ◽

Trade Offs ◽

And Behavior

Hormones mediate the expression of life history traits—phenotypic traits that contribute to lifetime fitness (i.e., reproductive timing, growth rate, number and size of offspring). The endocrine system shapes phenotype by organizing tissues during developmental periods and by activating changes in behavior, physiology, and morphology in response to varying physical and social environments. Because hormones can simultaneously regulate many traits (hormonal pleiotropy), they are important mediators of life history trade-offs among growth, reproduction, and survival. This chapter reviews the role of hormones in shaping life histories with an emphasis on developmental plasticity and reversible flexibility in endocrine and life history traits. It also discusses the advantages of studying hormone–behavior interactions from an evolutionary perspective. Recent research in evolutionary endocrinology has provided insight into the heritability of endocrine traits, how selection on hormone systems may influence the evolution of life histories, and the role of hormonal pleiotropy in driving or constraining evolution.

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Mapping the adaptive landscape of a major agricultural pathogen reveals evolutionary constraints across heterogeneous environments

The ISME Journal ◽

10.1038/s41396-020-00859-w ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Anik Dutta ◽

Fanny E. Hartmann ◽

Carolina Sardinha Francisco ◽

Bruce A. McDonald ◽

Daniel Croll

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Large Scale ◽

Life History Traits ◽

Genetic Correlations ◽

Stress Factors ◽

Life History Trait ◽

Adaptive Landscape ◽

Heterogeneous Environments ◽

Growth Responses ◽

Trade Offs

AbstractThe adaptive potential of pathogens in novel or heterogeneous environments underpins the risk of disease epidemics. Antagonistic pleiotropy or differential resource allocation among life-history traits can constrain pathogen adaptation. However, we lack understanding of how the genetic architecture of individual traits can generate trade-offs. Here, we report a large-scale study based on 145 global strains of the fungal wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici from four continents. We measured 50 life-history traits, including virulence and reproduction on 12 different wheat hosts and growth responses to several abiotic stressors. To elucidate the genetic basis of adaptation, we used genome-wide association mapping coupled with genetic correlation analyses. We show that most traits are governed by polygenic architectures and are highly heritable suggesting that adaptation proceeds mainly through allele frequency shifts at many loci. We identified negative genetic correlations among traits related to host colonization and survival in stressful environments. Such genetic constraints indicate that pleiotropic effects could limit the pathogen’s ability to cause host damage. In contrast, adaptation to abiotic stress factors was likely facilitated by synergistic pleiotropy. Our study illustrates how comprehensive mapping of life-history trait architectures across diverse environments allows to predict evolutionary trajectories of pathogens confronted with environmental perturbations.

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Phenotypic variation in shell form in the intertidal acorn barnacle Chthamalus montagui: distribution, response to predators and life history trade-offs

Marine Biology ◽

10.1007/s00227-014-2532-5 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 161 (11) ◽

pp. 2609-2619 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jefferson Murua ◽

Michael T. Burrows ◽

Roger N. Hughes ◽

Stephen J. Hawkins ◽

Richard C. Thompson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Phenotypic Variation ◽

Shell Form ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Acorn Barnacle ◽

Chthamalus Montagui

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The physiological costs of reproduction in small mammals

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2007.2145 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 363 (1490) ◽

pp. 375-398 ◽

Cited By ~ 399

Author(s):

John R Speakman

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Small Mammals ◽

Morphological Changes ◽

Life History Evolution ◽

Indirect Costs ◽

Direct Costs ◽

Costs Of Reproduction ◽

Dominant Component ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Almost All

Life-history trade-offs between components of fitness arise because reproduction entails both gains and costs. Costs of reproduction can be divided into ecological and physiological costs. The latter have been rarely studied yet are probably a dominant component of the effect. A deeper understanding of life-history evolution will only come about once these physiological costs are better understood. Physiological costs may be direct or indirect. Direct costs include the energy and nutrient demands of the reproductive event, and the morphological changes that are necessary to facilitate achieving these demands. Indirect costs may be optional ‘compensatory costs’ whereby the animal chooses to reduce investment in some other aspect of its physiology to maximize the input of resource to reproduction. Such costs may be distinguished from consequential costs that are an inescapable consequence of the reproductive event. In small mammals, the direct costs of reproduction involve increased energy, protein and calcium demands during pregnancy, but most particularly during lactation. Organ remodelling is necessary to achieve the high demands of lactation and involves growth of the alimentary tract and associated organs such as the liver and pancreas. Compensatory indirect costs include reductions in thermogenesis, immune function and physical activity. Obligatory consequential costs include hyperthermia, bone loss, disruption of sleep patterns and oxidative stress. This is unlikely to be a complete list. Our knowledge of these physiological costs is currently at best described as rudimentary. For some, we do not even know whether they are compensatory or obligatory. For almost all of them, we have no idea of exact mechanisms or how these costs translate into fitness trade-offs.

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