Experimental removal of sexual selection reverses intersexual antagonistic coevolution and removes a reproductive load

Holland, Brett; Rice, William R.

doi:10.1073/pnas.96.9.5083

Cited by 587 publications

(701 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Females from one set of vials were mated with irradiated males and females from the other set of vials to normal males, as follows. For each vial, 80 7-day-old wild-type males (LHm) were added for a period of 3 h. Previous experiments have shown that virtually all virgin females mate once and only once under similar conditions [42][43][44]. The males had either been gamma-irradiated to induce lesions in the sperm DNA or had been left untouched.…”

Section: (B) Experimental Procedures (I) Dominant Lethalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of sexual harassment on lethal mutation rate in femaleDrosophila melanogaster

et al. 2013

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The rate by which new mutations are introduced into a population may have far-reaching implications for processes at the population level. Theory assumes that all individuals within a population have the same mutation rate, but this assumption may not be true. Compared with individuals in high condition, those in poor condition may have fewer resources available to invest in DNA repair, resulting in elevated mutation rates. Alternatively, environmentally induced stress can result in increased investment in DNA repair at the expense of reproduction. Here, we directly test whether sexual harassment by males, known to reduce female condition, affects female capacity to alleviate DNA damage in Drosophila melanogaster fruitflies. Female gametes can repair double-strand DNA breaks in sperm, which allows manipulating mutation rate independently from female condition. We show that male harassment strongly not only reduces female fecundity, but also reduces the yield of dominant lethal mutations, supporting the hypothesis that stressed organisms invest relatively more in repair mechanisms. We discuss our results in the light of previous research and suggest that social effects such as density and courtship can play an important and underappreciated role in mediating condition-dependent mutation rate.

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Section: (B) Experimental Procedures (I) Dominant Lethalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of sexual harassment on lethal mutation rate in femaleDrosophila melanogaster

et al. 2013

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“…It is not clear why equalization of family sizes fails to reduce adverse impacts on reintroduction success. One possibility is that the conditions of full-sib competition under equalization of family sizes favours reduced competitiveness and less male-female conflicts (Holland & Rice, 1999), and this is deleterious upon reintroduction to more stressful and competitive environments.…”

Section: Genetic Adaptation To Captivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress and adaptation in conservation genetics

Frankham

2005

J of Evolutionary Biology

231

182

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Stress, adaptation and evolution are major concerns in conservation biology. Stresses from pollution, climatic changes, disease etc. may affect population persistence. Further, stress typically occurs when species are placed in captivity. Threatened species are usually managed to conserve their ability to adapt to environmental changes, whilst species in captivity undergo adaptations that are deleterious upon reintroduction into the wild. In model studies using Drosophila melanogaster, we have found that; (a) inbreeding and loss of genetic variation reduced resistance to the stress of disease, (b) extinction rates under inbreeding are elevated by stress, (c) adaptive evolutionary potential in an increasingly stressful environment is reduced in small population, (d) rates of inbreeding are elevated under stressful conditions, (e) genetic adaptation to captivity reduces fitness when populations are reintroduced into the ‘wild’, and (f) the deleterious effects of adaptation on reintroduction success can be reduced by population fragmentation.

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“…We also focus our models on serially monogamous conditions that are more likely to result in reproductive conflicts between spouses than contexts with lifelong pair bonds. For example, it is clear that there should not be sexual conflicts over number of offspring in purely monogamous contexts where a male's and female's reproduction are completely tied to that of their partner [45][46][47].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What do men want? Re-examining whether men benefit from higher fertility than is optimal for women

Moya

Snopkowski

Sear

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Several empirical observations suggest that when women have more autonomy over their reproductive decisions, fertility is lower. Some evolutionary theorists have interpreted this as evidence for sexual conflicts of interest, arguing that higher fertility is more adaptive for men than women. We suggest the assumptions underlying these arguments are problematic: assuming that women suffer higher costs of reproduction than men neglects the (different) costs of reproduction for men; the assumption that men can repartner is often false. We use simple models to illustrate that (i) men or women can prefer longer interbirth intervals (IBIs), (ii) if men can only partner with wives sequentially they may favour shorter IBIs than women, but such a strategy would only be optimal for a few men who can repartner. This suggests that an evolved universal male preference for higher fertility than women prefer is implausible and is unlikely to fully account for the empirical data. This further implies that if women have more reproductive autonomy, populations should grow, not decline. More precise theoretical explanations with clearly stated assumptions, and data that better address both ultimate fitness consequences and proximate psychological motivations, are needed to understand under which conditions sexual conflict over reproductive timing should arise.

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Experimental removal of sexual selection reverses intersexual antagonistic coevolution and removes a reproductive load

Cited by 587 publications

References 42 publications

The effect of sexual harassment on lethal mutation rate in femaleDrosophila melanogaster

The effect of sexual harassment on lethal mutation rate in femaleDrosophila melanogaster

Stress and adaptation in conservation genetics

What do men want? Re-examining whether men benefit from higher fertility than is optimal for women

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