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123 results for “sexual conflict”
Is sexual conflict a driver of speciation? a case study with a tribe of brush-footed butterflies
Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms governing the uneven distribution of species richness across the tree of life is a great challenge in biology. Scientists have long argued that sexual conflict is a key driver of speciation. This hypothesis, however, has been highly debated in light of empirical evidence. Recent advances in the study of macroevolution make it possible to test this hypothesis with more data and increased accuracy. In the present study, we use phylogenomics combined with four different diversification rate analytical approaches to test whether sexual conflict is a driver of speciation in brush-footed butterflies of the tribe Acraeini. The presence of sphragis, an external mating plug found in most species among Acraeini, was used as a proxy for sexual conflict. Diversification analyses statistically reject the hypothesis that sexual conflict is associated with shifts in diversification rates in Acraeini. This result contrasts with earlier studies and suggests that the underlying mechanisms driving diversification are more complex than previously considered. In the case of butterflies, natural history traits acting in concert with abiotic factors possibly play a stronger role in triggering speciation than does sexual conflict.
Selection for male weapons boosts female fecundity, eliminating sexual conflict in the bulb mite
<p>Extreme differences between the sexes are usually explained by intense sexual selection on male weapons or ornaments. Sexually antagonistic genes, with a positive effect on male traits but a negative effect on female fitness, create a negative inter-sexual correlation for fitness (sexual conflict). However, such antagonism might not be apparent if sexually selected male traits are condition-dependent, and condition elevates female fitness. Here we reveal a surprising positive genetic correlation between male weaponry and female fecundity. Using mite lines that had previously been through 13 generations of selection on male weapons (fighting legs), we investigated correlated evolution in female fecundity. Females from lines under positive selection for weapons (up lines) evolved higher fecundity, despite evolving costly, thicker legs. This is likely because male mites have condition-dependent weaponry that increases our ability to indirectly select on male condition. Alleles with positive effects on condition in both sexes could have generated this correlation because: the up lines evolved a higher proportion of fighters and there were positive correlations between weapon size and the male morph and sex ratios of the offspring. This positive inter-sexual genetic correlation should boost the evolution of male weapons and extreme sex differences.</p>
Data from: Unisexual flowers as a resolution to intralocus sexual conflict in hermaphrodites
<p>In dioecious populations, males and females may evolve different trait values to increase fitness through their respective sexual functions. Because the two sexual functions are expressed by the same individual in hermaphroditic populations, resolving sexual conflict is potentially more difficult. Here, we show that the modularity of plants may allow hermaphrodites to resolve sexual conflict because modules with different genders can promote fitness through their specialized sexual functions by expressing a correspondingly optimal trait value. We analyzed the flowering phenology, sex allocation, and selection gradients on floral traits of flowers of the andromonoecious plant <em>Pulsatilla alpina</em>, which produces both bisexual and male flowers. Our results indicate that strong protogyny prevents early bisexual flowers from profiting from high siring opportunities early in the reproductive season at a time when male flowers are able to achieve high siring success. Andromonoecy therefore resolves sexual conflict experienced by bisexual flowers in strongly protogynous populations. Our study illustrates the resolution of sexual conflict arising from phenological constraints via modular divergence in sex allocation. We discuss the extent to which modular variation in sex allocation in species with other sexual systems involving bisexuality may be explained similarly.</p>
Data supporting Fear of sex: Sexual conflict exposed as avoidance in a parthenogenetic invertebrate
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Males and females often have divergent evolutionary interests, generating sexual conflicts. This is particularly true in organisms that exhibit facultative <span><span>sexuality</span></span>, whereby females are capable of reproducing without fitness costs of mating. Here we provide the first documented evidence with quantitative tracking showing that sex interacts with social context to determine space-use of females, in a pattern resembling predator <span><span>avoidance</span></span>. To achieve this, we labeled <i>Daphnia magna</i> with fluorescent nanoparticles and utilized a 3-D tracking platform to record pairs of individuals swimming. The recordings comprised either same-sex or opposite-sex pairings. We found that females swam faster, deeper, more horizontally and more linearly when exposed to males than when exposed to females. Simultaneously, we found that male behavior did not differ depending on swimming partner and, importantly, we observed no sexual dimorphism in swimming behaviors when swimming with the same sex. Our results suggest that the presence of males in a population has the potential to influence the distribution of individuals, similarly to known threats, such as predation. This highlights that sexual conflict has clear spatial consequences and should be considered in such ecological frameworks, like the Landscape of Fear (LOF) concept. In a broader context, the connection of the evolutionary and social concept of sexual conflict and the ecological concept of LOF may improve our understanding of population dynamics and the spatial and temporal distribution of individuals in natural ecosystems.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
Thermal phenotypic plasticity of pre- and post-copulatory male harm buffers sexual conflict in wild Drosophila melanogaster
<div> <p><span>Strong sexual selection frequently leads to sexual conflict and ensuing male harm, whereby males increase their reproductive success at the expense of harming females. Male harm is a widespread evolutionary phenomenon with a strong bearing on population viability. Thus, understanding how it unfolds in the wild is a current priority. Here, we sampled a wild </span><span><em>Drosophila</em> <em>melanogaster</em></span><span> population and studied male harm across the normal range of temperatures under which it reproduces optimally in nature by comparing female lifetime reproductive success and underlying male harm mechanisms under monogamy (i.e., low male competition/harm) vs. polyandry (i.e., high male competition/harm). While females had equal lifetime reproductive success across temperatures under monogamy, polyandry resulted in a maximum decrease of female fitness at 24°C (35%), reducing its impact at both 20°C (22%), and 28°C (10%). Furthermore, female fitness components and pre- (i.e., harassment) and post-copulatory (i.e., ejaculate toxicity) mechanisms of male harm were asymmetrically affected by temperature. At 20ºC, male harassment of females was reduced, and polyandry accelerated female actuarial ageing. In contrast, the effect of mating on female receptivity (a component of ejaculate toxicity) was only modulated at 28ºC, where the mating costs for females decreased and polyandry mostly resulted in accelerated reproductive ageing. We thus show that, across a natural thermal range, sexual conflict processes and their effects on female fitness components are plastic and complex. As a result, the net effect of male harm on overall population viability is likely to be lower than previously surmised. We discuss how such plasticity may affect selection, adaptation and, ultimately, evolutionary rescue under a warming climate. </span><span> </span></p> </div>
Figure 1 in Inter-group conflicts involving adult female and male bearded capuchins, Sapajus libidinosus (Primates: Cebidae), in the context of provisioned resources: resource defense or sexual selection?
Figure 1. The study site is an isolated fragment of forest, surrounded by an urban matrix: Bosque Bougainville in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil. Source: ArcGIS Data and Maps©.
Data supporting Fear of sex: Sexual conflict exposed as avoidance in a parthenogenetic invertebrate
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Dosage compensation and sexual conflict in female heterogametic methylomes
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Data for: Surviving the serenade: how conflicting selection pressures shape the early stages of sexual signal diversification
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Can sexual conflict drive transitions to asexuality? Female resistance to fertilization in a facultatively parthenogenetic insect
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Is sexual conflict a driver of speciation? a case study with a tribe of brush-footed butterflies
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Selection for male weapons boosts female fecundity, eliminating sexual conflict in the bulb mite
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Thermal phenotypic plasticity of pre- and post-copulatory male harm buffers sexual conflict in wild Drosophila melanogaster
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Data from: Unisexual flowers as a resolution to intralocus sexual conflict in hermaphrodites
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Spatial environmental complexity mediates sexual conflict and sexual selection in Drosophila melanogaster
<p>Sexual selection is an important agent of evolutionary change, but the strength and direction of selection often vary over space and time. One potential source of heterogeneity may lie in the opportunity for male–male and/or male–female interactions imposed by the spatial environment. It has been suggested that increased spatial complexity permits sexual selection to act in a complementary fashion with natural selection (hastening the loss of deleterious alleles and/or promoting the spread of beneficial alleles) via two (not mutually exclusive) pathways. In the first scenario, sexual selection potentially acts more strongly on males in complex environments, allowing males of greater genetic "quality" a greater chance of outcompeting rivals, with benefits manifested indirectly in offspring. In the second scenario, increased spatial complexity reduces opportunities for males to antagonistically harm females, allowing females (especially those of greater potential fecundities) to achieve greater reproductive success (direct fitness benefits). Here, using <i>Drosophila melanogaster </i>, we explore the importance of these mechanisms by measuring direct and indirect fitness of females housed in simple vial environments or in vials in which spatial complexity has been increased. We find strong evidence in favor of the female conflict‐mediated pathway as individuals in complex environments remated less frequently and produced more offspring than those housed in a simpler spatial environment, but no difference in the fitness of sons or daughters. We discuss these results in the context of other recent studies and what they mean for our understanding of how sexual selection operates.</p>
Data from: Sexual and ecological selection on a sexual conflict gene
Sexual selection and conflict can act on genes with important metabolic functions, potentially shaping standing genetic variance in such genes, and thus evolutionary potential of populations. Here, using experimental evolution, we show how reproductive competition intensity and thermal environment affect selection on phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6Pgdh) – a metabolic gene involved in sexual selection and conflict in the bulb mite. The S allele of 6Pgdh increases male success in reproductive competition, but is detrimental to S-bearing males' partners. We found that the rate of the S allele spread increased with the proportion of males in the experimental populations, illustrating that harm to females is more easily compensated for males under more intense sexual competition. Furthermore, we found that under equal sex ratio, the S allele spreads faster at higher temperature. While the direction of selection on 6Pgdh was not reversed in any of the conditions we tested, which would be required for environmental heterogeneity to maintain polymorphism at this locus, our study highlights that ecological and sexual selection can jointly affect selection on important metabolic enzymes.
Consequences of population structure for sex allocation and sexual conflict
<p class="Standard">Both sex allocation and sexual conflict can be modulated by spatial structure. However, how the interplay between the type of dispersal and the scale of competition simultaneously affects these traits in sub-divided populations is rarely considered.</p> <p>We investigated sex allocation and sexual conflict evolution in meta-populations of the spider mite <i>Tetranychus urticae</i> evolving under budding (pairing females from the same patch) or random (pairing females from different patches) dispersal and either local (fixed sampling from each subpopulation) or global (sampling as a function of subpopulation productivity) competition.</p> <p>Females evolving under budding dispersal produced less female-biased offspring sex ratios than those from the random dispersal selection regimes, contradicting theoretical predictions. In contrast, the scale of competition did not strongly affect sex allocation. Offspring sex ratio and female fecundity were unaffected by the number of mates, but female fecundity was highest when their mates evolved under budding dispersal, suggesting these males inflict less harm than those evolving under random dispersal.</p> <p>This work highlights that population structure can impact the evolution of sex allocation and sexual conflict. Moreover, selection on either trait may reciprocally affect the evolution of the other, for example via effects on fecundity.</p>
The adaptive value of recombination in resolving intralocus sexual conflict by gene duplication.
<p>Datasets and code for the study titled "The adaptive value of recombination in resolving intralocus sexual conflict by gene duplication".</p>
Intralocus sexual conflict over optimal nutrient intake and the evolution of sex differences in lifespan and reproduction
<p>Despite widespread variation in lifespan across species, three clear patterns exist: sex differences in lifespan are ubiquitous, lifespan is commonly traded against reproduction, and nutrition has a major influence on these traits and how they trade-off. One process that potentially unites these patterns is Intralocus Sexual Conflict (IASC) over the optimal intake of nutrients for lifespan and reproduction. If nutrient intake has sex-specific effects on lifespan and reproduction and nutrient choice is genetically linked across the sexes, IASC will occur and may prevent one or both sexes from feeding to their nutritional optima. Here we determine whether this process is operating in the cricket <i>Gryllodes sigillatus</i>. We show that protein and carbohydrate intake have contrasting effects on lifespan and reproduction in the sexes and that there are strong positive intersexual genetic correlations for the intake of these nutrients under dietary choice. This divergence in nutrient effects, combined with the genetic architecture for nutrient choice is predicted to accelerate the evolutionary response of nutrient intake in males but constrain it in females, suggesting they are losing the conflict. Supporting this view, males and females were shown to regulate nutrient intake to a common ratio that was not perfectly optimal for lifespan or reproduction in either sex, especially in females. Our findings show that IASC over the optimal intake of nutrients is likely to be an important process generating sex differences in lifespan and reproduction and may help explain why females age faster and live shorter than males in <i>G. sigillatus</i>.</p>
Data from: Increased male-induced harm in response to female-limited selection: interactive effects between intra- and interlocus sexual conflict?
<p><span>Interlocus sexual conflict (IRSC) occurs because of shared interactions that have opposite effects on male and female fitness. Typically, it is assumed that loci involved in IRSC have sex-limited expression and are thus not directly affected by selective pressures acting on the other sex. However, if loci involved in IRSC have pleiotropic effects in the other sex, intersexual selection can shape the evolutionary dynamics of conflict escalation and resolution, as well as the evolution of reproductive traits linked to IRSC loci, and vice versa. Here we used an artificial selection approach in</span><span> Japanese quail (<em>Coturnix</em> <em>japonica</em>) to test if female-limited selection on reproductive investment affects the amount of harm caused by males during mating. We found that males originating from lines selected for high female reproductive investment caused more oxidative damage in the female reproductive tract than males originating from lines selected for low female reproductive investment. This male-induced damage was specific to the oviduct and not found in other female tissues, suggesting that it was ejaculate-mediated. Our results suggest that intersexual selection shapes the evolution of IRSC and that male-induced harm may contribute to the maintenance of variation in female reproductive investment.</span></p>
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Allen Brain Atlas
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DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.