Adaptation to experimental alterations of the operational sex ratio in populations of Drosophila melanogaster.

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Version: Final published version
Serval ID
serval:BIB_4E32CA732DDA
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Adaptation to experimental alterations of the operational sex ratio in populations of Drosophila melanogaster.
Journal
Evolution
Author(s)
Reuter M., Linklater J.R., Lehmann L., Fowler K., Chapman T., Hurst G.D.
ISSN
0014-3820 (Print)
ISSN-L
0014-3820
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2008
Volume
62
Number
2
Pages
401-412
Language
english
Abstract
Theory predicts that males adapt to sperm competition by increasing their investment in testis mass to transfer larger ejaculates. Experimental and comparative data support this prediction. Nevertheless, the relative importance of sperm competition in testis size evolution remains elusive, because experiments vary only sperm competition whereas comparative approaches confound it with other variables, in particular male mating rate. We addressed the relative importance of sperm competition and male mating rate by taking an experimental evolution approach. We subjected populations of Drosophila melanogaster to sex ratios of 1:1, 4:1, and 10:1 (female:male). Female bias decreased sperm competition but increased male mating rate and sperm depletion. After 28 generations of evolution, males from the 10:1 treatment had larger testes than males from other treatments. Thus, testis size evolved in response to mating rate and sperm depletion, not sperm competition. Furthermore, our experiment demonstrated that drift associated with sex ratio distortion limits adaptation; testis size only evolved in populations in which the effect of sex ratio bias on the effective population size had been compensated by increasing the numerical size. We discuss these results with respect to reproductive evolution, genetic drift in natural and experimental populations, and consequences of natural sex ratio distortion.
Keywords
Adaptation, Physiological, Animals, Drosophila melanogaster/genetics, Female, Fertilization, Genetic Drift, Genetics, Population, Male, Meiosis, Organ Size, Sex Ratio, Sexual Behavior, Animal, Testis, Wing/pathology
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
04/05/2011 14:48
Last modification date
20/08/2019 14:03
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