scholarly journals Evolutionary Consequences of Male Driven Sexual Selection and Sex-Biased Fitness Modifications in Drosophila melanogaster and Members of the simulans Clade

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santosh Jagadeeshan ◽  
Wilfried Haerty ◽  
Monika Moglinicka ◽  
Abha Ahuja ◽  
Scot De Vito ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Male Mating Strategies ◽  
Aggressive Male ◽  
Morphological And Physiological Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences ◽  
Shed Light

Males have evolved a variety of behavioral, morphological, and physiological traits to manipulate their mates in order to maximize their chances of success. These traits are bound to influence how females respond to male behaviors and influence the nature of sexual selection/conflict. A common consequence of aggressive male mating strategies in Drosophila melanogaster is the reduction of female lifespan. Our study shows that this is common across members of the simulans clade. Reduced life expectancy of females implies that female contribution to a population is less than that of males per generation. Fitness differences between the sexes in every generation will invariably affect overall population fitness. How natural selection responds to the female deaths and thereby the unequal fitness of the sexes has rarely been addressed. We shed light on this issue and provide evidence, which suggests that additional gains of fitness by males due to their longevity and continued mating may provide one explanation as to why the loss of female fitness may be “invisible” (effectively neutral) to natural selection. Male driven sexual selection and additional, transgenerational gains of male fitness can be an important force of evolutionary change and need to be tested with other organisms.

scholarly journals Paternity in wild ring‐tailed lemurs ( Lemur catta ): Implications for male mating strategies

2016 ◽  
Vol 78 (12) ◽  
pp. 1316-1325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce A. Parga ◽  
Michelle L. Sauther ◽  
Frank P. Cuozzo ◽  
Ibrahim Antho Youssouf Jacky ◽  
Richard R. Lawler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lemur Catta ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Male Mating Strategies

scholarly journals The physical environment mediates male harm and its effect on selection in females

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1858) ◽  
pp. 20170424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Yun ◽  
Patrick J. Chen ◽  
Amardeep Singh ◽  
Aneil F. Agrawal ◽  
Howard D. Rundle
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Selective Advantage ◽  
Laboratory Studies ◽  
Male Choice ◽  
Female Fitness ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences ◽  
Natural And Sexual Selection

Recent experiments indicate that male preferential harassment of high-quality females reduces the variance in female fitness, thereby weakening natural selection through females and hampering adaptation and purging. We propose that this phenomenon, which results from a combination of male choice and male-induced harm, should be mediated by the physical environment in which intersexual interactions occur. Using Drosophila melanogaster , we examined intersexual interactions in small and simple (standard fly vials) versus slightly more realistic (small cages with spatial structure) environments. We show that in these more realistic environments, sexual interactions are less frequent, are no longer biased towards high-quality females, and that overall male harm is reduced. Next, we examine the selective advantage of high- over low-quality females while manipulating the opportunity for male choice. Male choice weakens the viability advantage of high-quality females in the simple environment, consistent with previous work, but strengthens selection on females in the more realistic environment. Laboratory studies in simple environments have strongly shaped our understanding of sexual conflict but may provide biased insight. Our results suggest that the physical environment plays a key role in the evolutionary consequences of sexual interactions and ultimately the alignment of natural and sexual selection.

scholarly journals Sexual Selection Does Not Increase the Rate of Compensatory Adaptation to a Mutation Influencing a Secondary Sexual Trait in Drosophila melanogaster

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1541-1551
Author(s):  
Christopher H. Chandler ◽  
Anna Mammel ◽  
Ian Dworkin
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Spontaneous Mutation ◽  
Phenotypic Expression ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Phenotypic Suppression ◽  
Compensatory Adaptation ◽  
Deleterious Alleles ◽  
Sex Comb

Theoretical work predicts that sexual selection can enhance natural selection, increasing the rate of adaptation to new environments and helping purge harmful mutations. While some experiments support these predictions, remarkably little work has addressed the role of sexual selection on compensatory adaptation—populations’ ability to compensate for the costs of deleterious alleles that are already present. We tested whether sexual selection, as well as the degree of standing genetic variation, affect the rate of compensatory evolution via phenotypic suppression in experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster. These populations were fixed for a spontaneous mutation causing mild abnormalities in the male sex comb, a structure important for mating success. We fine-mapped this mutation to an ∼85 kb region on the X chromosome containing three candidate genes, showed that the mutation is deleterious, and that its phenotypic expression and penetrance vary by genetic background. We then performed experimental evolution, including a treatment where opportunity for mate choice was limited by experimentally enforced monogamy. Although evolved populations did show some phenotypic suppression of the morphological abnormalities in the sex comb, the amount of suppression did not depend on the opportunity for sexual selection. Sexual selection, therefore, may not always enhance natural selection; instead, the interaction between these two forces may depend on additional factors.

Interplay of male traits, male mating strategies and female mate choice in the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus

Behaviour ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 152 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 1113-1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karpagam Chelliah ◽  
Raman Sukumar
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Mate Guarding ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Asian Elephant ◽  
Dominant Male ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Male Body ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Male Mating Strategies

Elaborate male traits with no apparent adaptive value may have evolved through female mate discrimination. Tusks are an elaborate male-only trait in the Asian elephant that could potentially influence female mate choice. We examined the effect of male body size, tusk possession and musth status on female mate choice in an Asian elephant population. Large/musth males received positive responses from oestrous females towards courtship significantly more often than did small/non-musth males. Young, tusked non-musth males attempted courtship significantly more often than their tuskless peers, and received more positive responses (though statistically insignificant) than did tuskless males. A positive response did not necessarily translate into mating because of mate-guarding by a dominant male. Female elephants appear to choose mates based primarily on traits such as musth that signal direct fertility benefits through increased sperm received than for traits such as tusks that may signal only indirect fitness benefits.

Endocrine correlates of contrasting male mating strategies in the European badger (Meles meles)

1997 ◽  
Vol 241 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosie Woodroffe ◽  
D. W. Macdonald ◽  
C. L. Cheeseman
Keyword(s):  
Meles Meles ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
European Badger ◽  
Male Mating Strategies

scholarly journals The effects of male harm vary with female quality and environmental complexity in Drosophila melanogaster

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 20180443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison MacPherson ◽  
Li Yun ◽  
Tania S. Barrera ◽  
Aneil F. Agrawal ◽  
Howard D. Rundle
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Mate Competition ◽  
Environmental Complexity ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Female Quality ◽  
Behavioural Interactions ◽  
Recent Attention

Mate competition provides the opportunity for sexual selection which often acts strongly on males, but also the opportunity for sexual conflict that can alter natural selection on females. Recent attention has focused on the potential of sexual conflict to weaken selection on females if male sexual attention, and hence harm, is disproportionately directed towards high- over low-quality females, thereby reducing the fitness difference between these females. However, sexual conflict could instead strengthen selection on females if low-quality females are more sensitive to male harm than high-quality females, thereby magnifying fitness differences between them. We quantify the effects of male exposure on low- versus high-quality females in Drosophila melanogaster in each of two environments (‘simple’ and ‘complex’) that are known to alter behavioural interactions. We show that the effects of male harm are greater for low- compared to high-quality females in the complex but not the simple environment, consistent with mate competition strengthening selection on females in the former but not in the latter environment.

scholarly journals Correlates of Male Mating Strategies in White Rhinos (Ceratotherium simum)

1998 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 1317-1324 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Rachlow ◽  
E. V. Berkeley ◽  
J. Berger
Keyword(s):  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Ceratotherium Simum ◽  
Male Mating Strategies
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