scholarly journals Intralocus sexual conflict can maintain alternative reproductive tactics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madilyn Marisa Gamble ◽  
Ryan G Calsbeek
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Genetic Correlations ◽  
Alternative Reproductive Tactics ◽  
Specific Gene ◽  
Reproductive Tactics ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Intralocus Sexual Conflict ◽  
Maintenance Of Sex ◽  
Negative Frequency Dependent Selection

Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) are ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom and widely regarded as an outcome of high variance in reproductive success. Proximate mechanisms underlying ARTs include genetically based polymorphisms, environmentally induced polymorphisms, and those mediated by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. However, few ultimate mechanisms have been proposed to explain the maintenance of ARTs over time, the most important of which have been disruptive and negative frequency-dependent selection. Here we explore the role that intralocus sexual conflict may play in the maintenance of sex-specific ARTs. We use a genetically explicit individual-based model in which body size influences both female fecundity and male tactic through a shared genetic architecture. By modeling ART maintenance under varying selection regimes and levels of sex-specific gene expression, we explore the conditions under which intralocus sexual conflict can maintain a hypothetical ART defined by larger (alpha) and smaller (beta) tactics. Our models consistently revealed that sexual conflict can result in the persistence of a sex-specific polymorphism over hundreds of generations, even in the absence of negative frequency-dependent selection. ARTs were maintained through correlated selection when one male ART has lower fitness but produces daughters with higher fitness. These results highlight the importance of understanding selection on both sexes when attempting to explain the maintenance of ARTs. Our results are consistent with a growing literature documenting genetic correlations between male ARTs and female fitness, suggesting that the maintenance of sex-specific ARTs through intralocus sexual conflict may be common and widespread in nature.

scholarly journals Preserving genes: a model of the maintenance of genetic variation in a metapopulation under frequency-dependent selection

1995 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia P. Judson
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Practical Interest ◽  
Strong Interactions ◽  
Population Subdivision ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Maintenance Of Sex ◽  
Negative Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Asexual Populations

SummaryUnderstanding how genetic variability is maintained in natural populations is of both theoretical and practical interest. In particular, the subdivision of populations into demes linked by low levels of migration has been suggested to play an important role. But the maintenance of genetic variation in populations is also often linked to the maintenance of sexual reproduction: any force that acts to maintain sex should also act to maintain variation. One theory for the maintenance of sex, the Red Queen, states that sex and variation are maintained by antagonistic coevolutionary interactions – especially those between hosts and their harmful parasites – that give rise to negative frequency-dependent selection. In this paper I present a model to examine the relationships between population subdivision, negative frequency-dependent selection due to parasites, the maintenance of sex, and the preservation of alleles from fixation. The results show strong interactions between migration rates, negative frequency-dependent selection, and the maintenance of variability for sexual and asexual populations.

scholarly journals A geographic cline induced by negative frequency-dependent selection

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuma Takahashi ◽  
Satoru Morita ◽  
Jin Yoshimura ◽  
Mamoru Watanabe
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Negative Frequency Dependent Selection

scholarly journals Intruder colour and light environment jointly determine how nesting male stickleback respond to simulated territorial intrusions

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 20160467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel I. Bolnick ◽  
Kimberly Hendrix ◽  
Lyndon Alexander Jordan ◽  
Thor Veen ◽  
Chad D. Brock
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Dependence ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Light Environment ◽  
Depth Gradient ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Negative Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Colour Signals

Variation in male nuptial colour signals might be maintained by negative frequency-dependent selection. This can occur if males are more aggressive towards rivals with locally common colour phenotypes. To test this hypothesis, we introduced red or melanic three-dimensional printed-model males into the territories of nesting male stickleback from two optically distinct lakes with different coloured residents. Red-throated models were attacked more in the population with red males, while melanic models were attacked more in the melanic male lake. Aggression against red versus melanic models also varied across a depth gradient within each lake, implying that the local light environment also modulated the strength of negative frequency dependence acting on male nuptial colour.

scholarly journals Genetic correlations across genetically determined and developmentally plastic alternative reproductive tactics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica K. Abbott ◽  
Oscar Rios-Cardenas ◽  
Molly Morris
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Genetic Correlation ◽  
Genetic Correlations ◽  
Phenotypic Expression ◽  
Alternative Reproductive Tactics ◽  
Phenotypic Trait ◽  
Sexual Antagonism ◽  
Reproductive Tactics ◽  
Genetic Conflict ◽  
Genetically Determined

AbstractAlternative reproductive tactics occur when individuals of the same sex have a suite of morphological and/or behavioural traits that allow them to pursue different reproductive strategies. A common pattern is e.g. the existence of “courter” and “sneaker” tactics within males. We have previously argued that alternative reproductive tactics should be subject to genetic conflict over the phenotypic expression of traits, similar to sexual antagonism. In this process, which we called intra-locus tactical conflict, genetically determined tactics experience conflicting selection on a shared phenotypic trait, such as body size, but a positive genetic correlation between tactics in body size prevents either tactic from reaching its optimum. Recently, other authors have attempted to extend this idea to developmentally plastic alternative reproductive tactics, with mixed results. However, it is not clear whether we should expect intra-locus tactical conflict in developmentally plastic tactics or not. We have therefore run a series of simulation models investigating under what conditions we should expect to see positive estimates of the inter-tactical genetic correlation, since a positive genetic correlation is a prerequisite for the existence of intra-locus tactical conflict. We found that for autosomal, X-linked, and Y-linked genetically-determined tactics, estimated inter-tactical genetic correlations were generally high. However, for developmentally plastic tactics, the genetic correlation depends on the properties of the switching threshold between tactics. If it is fixed, then estimated genetic correlations are positive, but if there is genetic variation in the switch-point, then any sign and magnitude of estimated genetic correlation is possible, even for highly heritable traits where the true underlying correlation is perfect. This means that caution should be used when investigating genetic constraints in plastic phenotypes.

scholarly journals Negative frequency-dependent selection maintains coexisting genotypes during fluctuating selection

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline B. Turner ◽  
Sean W. Buskirk ◽  
Katrina B. Harris ◽  
Vaughn S. Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Burkholderia Cenocepacia ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Fluctuating Selection ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Fluctuating Environment ◽  
Fluctuating Environments ◽  
Negative Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Selection For

AbstractNatural environments are rarely static; rather selection can fluctuate on time scales ranging from hours to centuries. However, it is unclear how adaptation to fluctuating environments differs from adaptation to constant environments at the genetic level. For bacteria, one key axis of environmental variation is selection for planktonic or biofilm modes of growth. We conducted an evolution experiment with Burkholderia cenocepacia, comparing the evolutionary dynamics of populations evolving under constant selection for either biofilm formation or planktonic growth with populations in which selection fluctuated between the two environments on a weekly basis. Populations evolved in the fluctuating environment shared many of the same genetic targets of selection as those evolved in constant biofilm selection, but were genetically distinct from the constant planktonic populations. In the fluctuating environment, mutations in the biofilm-regulating genes wspA and rpfR rose to high frequency in all replicate populations. A mutation in wspA first rose rapidly and nearly fixed during the initial biofilm phase but was subsequently displaced by a collection of rpfR mutants upon the shift to the planktonic phase. The wspA and rpfR genotypes coexisted via negative frequency-dependent selection around an equilibrium frequency that shifted between the environments. The maintenance of coexisting genotypes in the fluctuating environment was unexpected. Under temporally fluctuating environments coexistence of two genotypes is only predicted under a narrow range of conditions, but the frequency-dependent interactions we observed provide a mechanism that can increase the likelihood of coexistence in fluctuating environments.

scholarly journals Negative frequency dependent selection contributes to the maintenance of a global polymorphism in mitochondrial DNA

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zorana Kurbalija Novičić ◽  
Ahmed Sayadi ◽  
Mihailo Jelić ◽  
Göran Arnqvist
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Dna ◽  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Life History ◽  
Balancing Selection ◽  
Food Resource ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Central Process ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Frequency Dependent Selection ◽  
Negative Frequency Dependent Selection

Abstract Background Understanding the forces that maintain diversity across a range of scales is at the very heart of biology. Frequency-dependent processes are generally recognized as the most central process for the maintenance of ecological diversity. The same is, however, not generally true for genetic diversity. Negative frequency dependent selection, where rare genotypes have an advantage, is often regarded as a relatively weak force in maintaining genetic variation in life history traits because recombination disassociates alleles across many genes. Yet, many regions of the genome show low rates of recombination and genetic variation in such regions (i.e., supergenes) may in theory be upheld by frequency dependent selection. Results We studied what is essentially a ubiquitous life history supergene (i.e., mitochondrial DNA) in the fruit fly Drosophila subobscura, showing sympatric polymorphism with two main mtDNA genotypes co-occurring in populations world-wide. Using an experimental evolution approach involving manipulations of genotype starting frequencies, we show that negative frequency dependent selection indeed acts to maintain genetic variation in this region. Moreover, the strength of selection was affected by food resource conditions. Conclusions Our work provides novel experimental support for the view that balancing selection through negative frequency dependency acts to maintain genetic variation in life history genes. We suggest that the emergence of negative frequency dependent selection on mtDNA is symptomatic of the fundamental link between ecological processes related to resource use and the maintenance of genetic variation.

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