SEXUAL CONFLICT AND SEXUAL SELECTION: MEASURING ANTAGONISTIC COEVOLUTION

Evolution ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 1389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommaso Pizzari ◽  
Rhonda R. Snook
Evolution ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 1389-1393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommaso Pizzari ◽  
Rhonda R. Snook

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rochishnu Dutta ◽  
Tejinder Singh Chechi ◽  
N. G. Prasad

Abstract Background: The ability of sexual conflict to facilitate reproductive isolation is widely anticipated. However, very few experimental evolutionary studies have convincingly demonstrated the evolution of reproductive isolation due to sexual conflict. Recently a study on the replicates of Drosophila melanogaster populations under differential sexual conflict found that divergent mate preference evolved among replicates under high sexual conflict regime. The precopulatory isolating mechanism underlying such divergent mate preference could be sexual signals such as cuticular lipids since they evolve rapidly and are involved in D. melanogaster mate recognition. Using Drosophila melanogaster replicates used in the previous study, we investigate whether cuticular lipid divergence bears signatures of sexually antagonistic coevolution that led to reproductive isolation among replicates of high sexual conflict regime. Results: We found that their cuticular lipid profiles are sexually dimorphic. Although replicates with male biased sex ratio evolved isolation in reproductive traits due to high sexual conflict, the patterns of cuticular lipid divergence in high and low sexual conflict regimes suggest that sexual selection is the dominant selection pressure rather than sexual conflict affecting the cuticular lipid profile. We also find cuticular lipid divergence patterns to be suggestive of the Buridan’s Ass regime which is one of the six possible mechanism to resolve sexual conflict. Conclusions: Although reproductive isolation due to sexual conflict is anticipated, evolution of a sexually selected trait under sexual conflict may not lead to population differentiation in expected lines. This is because speciation due to sexually antagonistic coevolution is only one of the several outcomes of sexual conflict. This study indicates that population differentiation as a result of cuticular lipid divergence cannot be credited to sexual conflict despite high sexual conflict regime evolving divergent cuticular lipid profiles.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 693-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Gay ◽  
P.E. Eady ◽  
R. Vasudev ◽  
D.J. Hosken ◽  
T. Tregenza

Sexual conflict over reproductive investment can lead to sexually antagonistic coevolution and reproductive isolation. It has been suggested that, unlike most models of allopatric speciation, the evolution of reproductive isolation through sexually antagonistic coevolution will occur faster in large populations as these harbour greater levels of standing genetic variation, receive larger numbers of mutations and experience more intense sexual selection. We tested this in bruchid beetle populations ( Callosobruchus maculatus ) by manipulating population size and standing genetic variability in replicated lines derived from founders that had been released from sexual conflict for 90 generations. We found that after 19 generations of reintroduced sexual conflict, none of our treatments had evolved significant overall reproductive isolation among replicate lines. However, as predicted, measures of reproductive isolation tended to be greater among larger populations. We discuss our methodology, arguing that reproductive isolation is best examined by performing a matrix of allopatric and sympatric crosses whereas measurement of divergence requires crosses with a tester line.


Author(s):  
Rachel Olzer ◽  
Rebecca L. Ehrlich ◽  
Justa L. Heinen-Kay ◽  
Jessie Tanner ◽  
Marlene Zuk

Sex and reproduction lie at the heart of studies of insect behavior. We begin by providing a brief overview of insect anatomy and physiology, followed by an introduction to the overarching themes of parental investment, sexual selection, and mating systems. We then take a sequential approach to illustrate the diversity of phenomena and concepts behind insect reproductive behavior from pre-copulatory mate signalling through copulatory sperm transfer, mating positions, and sexual conflict, to post-copulatory sperm competition, and cryptic female choice. We provide an overview of the evolutionary mechanisms driving reproductive behavior. These events are linked by the economic defendability of mates or resources, and how these are allocated in each sex. Under the framework of economic defendability, the reader can better understand how sexual antagonistic behaviors arise as the result of competing optimal fitness strategies between males and females.


2006 ◽  
Vol 361 (1466) ◽  
pp. 363-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tristan A.F Long ◽  
Robert Montgomerie ◽  
Adam K Chippindale

Six sister populations of Drosophila melanogaster kept under identical environmental conditions for greater than 600 generations were reciprocally crossed to investigate the incidence of population divergence in allopatry. Population crosses directly influenced fitness, mating frequency, and sperm competition patterns. Changes in both female remating rate and the outcome of male sperm competition (P 1 , P 2 ) in response to foreign males were consistent with intersexual coevolution. Moreover, seven of the 30 crosses between foreign mates resulted in significant reductions in female fitness, whereas two resulted in significant increases, compared to local matings. This tendency for foreign males to reduce female fitness may be interpreted as evidence for either sexually antagonistic coevolution or the disruption of mutualistic interactions. However, instances in which female fitness improved via cohabitation with foreign males may better reveal sexual conflict, signalling release from the cost of interacting with locally adapted males. By this metric, female reproduction in D. melanogaster is strongly constrained by local adaptation by males, a situation that would promote antagonistic coevolution between the sexes. We conclude that sexual selection can promote population differentiation in allopatry and that sexual conflict is likely to have played a role in population differentiation in this study system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 220-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissah Rowe ◽  
Liisa Veerus ◽  
Pål Trosvik ◽  
Angus Buckling ◽  
Tommaso Pizzari

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1813) ◽  
pp. 20200069 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan P. Evans ◽  
Rowan A. Lymbery

Broadcast spawning invertebrates offer highly tractable models for evaluating sperm competition, gamete-level mate choice and sexual conflict. By displaying the ancestral mating strategy of external fertilization, where sexual selection is constrained to act after gamete release, broadcast spawners also offer potential evolutionary insights into the cascade of events that led to sexual reproduction in more ‘derived’ groups (including humans). Moreover, the dynamic reproductive conditions faced by these animals mean that the strength and direction of sexual selection on both males and females can vary considerably. These attributes make broadcast spawning invertebrate systems uniquely suited to testing, extending, and sometimes challenging classic and contemporary ideas in sperm competition, many of which were first captured in Parker's seminal papers on the topic. Here, we provide a synthesis outlining progress in these fields, and highlight the burgeoning potential for broadcast spawners to provide both evolutionary and mechanistic understanding into gamete-level sexual selection more broadly across the animal kingdom. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Fifty years of sperm competition’.


2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (8) ◽  
pp. E978-E986 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya M. Pennell ◽  
Freek J. H. de Haas ◽  
Edward H. Morrow ◽  
G. Sander van Doorn

Evolutionary conflict between the sexes can induce arms races in which males evolve traits that are detrimental to the fitness of their female partners, and vice versa. This interlocus sexual conflict (IRSC) has been proposed as a cause of perpetual intersexual antagonistic coevolution with wide-ranging evolutionary consequences. However, theory suggests that the scope for perpetual coevolution is limited, if traits involved in IRSC are subject to pleiotropic constraints. Here, we consider a biologically plausible form of pleiotropy that has hitherto been ignored in treatments of IRSC and arrive at drastically different conclusions. Our analysis is based on a quantitative genetic model of sexual conflict, in which genes controlling IRSC traits have side effects in the other sex, due to incompletely sex-limited gene expression. As a result, the genes are exposed to intralocus sexual conflict (IASC), a tug-of-war between opposing male- and female-specific selection pressures. We find that the interaction between the two forms of sexual conflict has contrasting effects on antagonistic coevolution: Pleiotropic constraints stabilize the dynamics of arms races if the mating traits are close to evolutionary equilibrium but can prevent populations from ever reaching such a state. Instead, the sexes are drawn into a continuous cycle of arms races, causing the buildup of IASC, alternated by phases of IASC resolution that trigger the next arms race. These results encourage an integrative perspective on the biology of sexual conflict and generally caution against relying exclusively on equilibrium stability analysis.


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