Playing to the crowd: Using Drosophila to dissect mechanisms underlying plastic male strategies in sperm competition games

Bretman, Amanda; Chapman, Tracey; Rouse, James; Wigby, Stuart

doi:10.1016/bs.asb.2022.11.001

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 149 publications

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“…Plastic responses to environmental conditions such as diet can also balance lifespan and reproductive success according to the level of resources available [14][15][16] and can even change the sign of trade offs between lifespan and reproductive effort [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Behavioural plasticity or allocation of resouces to reproduction may also vary in response to the immediate conditions experienced during adulthood [1]. Plastic responses to environmental conditions such as diet can also balance lifespan and reproductive success according to the level of resources available [14-16] and can even change the sign of trade offs between lifespan and reproductive effort [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Socially plastic responses in females are robust to evolutionary manipulations of adult sex ratio and adult nutrition

McConnell,

Haerty,

Gage

et al. 2023

Preprint

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BackgroundSocially plastic behaviours are widespread among animals and can have a significant impact on fitness. Here we investigated whether the socially plastic responses of femaleDrosophila melanogastercan evolve in predictable ways following long term manipulation of adult sex ratio and adult nutrient availability. Previous reports show that femaleD. melanogasterrespond plastically to their immediate same-sex social environment by altering their fecundity, laying fewer eggs after they mate if previously exposed to other females, Fecundity is also highly sensitive to a female’s immediate nutritional status, being significantly reduced when dietary protein in particular is scarce. On this basis, we predicted that an evolutionary history of exposure to variation in adult sex ratio and adult nutritional environment would select strongly upon a female’s plastic fecundity responses.ResultsWe used females that had been drawn from replicated lines that had experienced an evolutionary history of male biased, female biased or equal adult sex ratios and either standard or low-quality adult nutrition. We tested the specific predictions that a history of elevated competition among females (in female-biased regimes) would select for increasingly sensitive plastic fecundity responses to the presence of conspecifics, and that these would be magnified under poor nutritional resource regimes. In contrast to the expectations, we found that the plastic responses in females were strikingly robust to perturbations of both sexual competition and nutrient availability and did not differ significantly across any of the evolutionary regimes. The lack of response is not explained by an insufficient strength of selection. For example, among females held in isolation prior to mating, we did observe significant evolutionary responses in virgin egg according to nutritional regime and in virgin egg retention to sex ratio regime.ConclusionThe lack of variation in the existence and magnitude of predicted plasticity is consistent with the idea that the costs of maintaining fecundity plasticity in females are low, benefits high, and that plasticity itself can be hard wired.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socially plastic responses in females are robust to evolutionary manipulations of adult sex ratio and adult nutrition

McConnell,

Haerty,

Gage

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Post‐Copulatory Sexual Selection in an Insect With High Levels of Mating Failure

Balfour,

Armand,

Shuker

2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Sexual selection is not a single process. Instead, multiple processes of sexual selection can interact with respect to a given phenotype, in either reinforcing, independent, or conflicting directions. Here we consider how different processes of sexual selection interact in the seed bug Lygaeus simulans. This species is characterised by limited pre‐copulatory sexual selection, but the potential for rather strong post‐copulatory sexual selection. In particular, mating failure is common in this species, with around 40%–60% of copulations failing to result in the successful transfer of sperm. Mating failure is negatively correlated with female size, with smaller females being less likely to end up inseminated. We have recently argued that this pattern is best explained by cryptic male mate choice for large, more fecund females. Males therefore preferentially inseminate larger females. Here we explore how this potential cryptic male choice interacts with another component of post‐copulatory sexual selection: sperm competition. We first manipulated male and female size variation, generating large and small, male and female, size classes. Using a visible mutant marker to assign paternity, we then double‐mated females with males, in all combinations of male and female size. Our results showed that sperm competition outcomes were primarily driven by copulation duration, with longer copulations leading to greater paternity share for a male. We also confirmed that larger females are more likely to produce offspring than smaller females, as predicted by cryptic male choice for large females. This effect was again linked to copulation duration, with longer copulations less likely to lead to mating failure. While larger males tended to be more successful in sperm competition, especially if copulating second, female size had little effect on paternity, suggesting that cryptic male choice and sperm competition are acting relatively independently in this species.

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Socially plastic responses in females are robust to evolutionary manipulations of adult sex ratio and adult nutrition

McConnell,

Haerty,

Gage

et al. 2024

Journal of Evolutionary Biology

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Socially plastic behaviours are widespread among animals and can have a significant impact on fitness. Here, we investigated whether the socially plastic responses of female Drosophila melanogaster can evolve in predictable ways following long-term manipulation of adult sex ratio and adult nutrient availability. Previous reports show that female D. melanogaster respond plastically to their same-sex social environment and lay significantly fewer eggs after mating when previously exposed to other females. In this study, we tested 2 hypotheses, using females drawn from lines with an evolutionary history of exposure to variation in adult sex ratio (male-biased, female-biased or equal sex ratio) and adult nutritional environment (high or low quality). The first was that a history of elevated competition in female-biased regimes would select for increased plastic fecundity responses in comparison to females from other lines. The second was that these responses would also be magnified under poor nutritional resource regimes. Neither hypothesis was supported. Instead, we found that plastic fecundity responses were retained in females from all lines and did not differ significantly across any of them. The lack of differences does not appear to be due to insufficient selection, as we did observe significant evolutionary responses in virgin egg-laying patterns according to sex ratio and nutritional regime. The lack of variation in the magnitude of predicted plasticity is consistent with the idea that the costs of maintaining plasticity are low, benefits high, and that plasticity itself can be relatively hard wired.

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Playing to the crowd: Using Drosophila to dissect mechanisms underlying plastic male strategies in sperm competition games

Cited by 3 publications

References 149 publications

Socially plastic responses in females are robust to evolutionary manipulations of adult sex ratio and adult nutrition

Socially plastic responses in females are robust to evolutionary manipulations of adult sex ratio and adult nutrition

Post‐Copulatory Sexual Selection in an Insect With High Levels of Mating Failure

Socially plastic responses in females are robust to evolutionary manipulations of adult sex ratio and adult nutrition

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