Find research datasets worth reusing
Search datasets from major research repositories and use ShareScore to quickly assess how well each record supports discovery, access, and reuse.
24
datasets available to search
ShareScore release 0.9.0
Dataset results
24 results for “sexually selected weapons”
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>
Macroevolution of sexually selected weapons: weapon evolution in chameleons
Abstract The evolution of sexually selected traits is a major topic in evolutionary biology. However, large-scale evolutionary patterns in these traits remain understudied, especially those traits used in male–male competition (weapons sensu lato). Here, we analyze weapon evolution in chamaeleonid lizards, both within and between the sexes. Chameleons are an outstanding model system because of their morphological diversity (including 11 weapon types among ~220 species) and a large-scale time-calibrated phylogeny. We analyze these 11 traits among 165 species using phylogenetic methods, addressing many questions for the first time in any group. We find that all 11 weapons have each evolved multiple times and that weapon origins are generally more frequent than their losses. We find that almost all weapons have each persisted for &gt;30 million years (and some for &gt;65 million years). Across chameleon phylogeny, we identify both hotspots for weapon evolution (up to 10 types present per species) and coldspots (all weapons absent, many through loss). These hotspots are significantly associated with larger male body size, but are only weakly related to sexual-size dimorphism. We also find that weapon evolution is strongly correlated between males and females. Overall, these results provide a baseline for understanding large-scale patterns of weapon evolution within clades.
Macroevolution of sexually selected weapons: weapon evolution in chameleons
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Selection for male weapons boosts female fecundity, eliminating sexual conflict in the bulb mite
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Sexually-selected male weapon is associated with lower inbreeding load but higher gender load in the bulb mite
<p>Elaborate sexually selected ornaments and armaments are costly but increase the reproductive success of their bearers (usually males). It has been postulated that high-quality males can invest disproportionately more in such traits, making those traits honest signals of genetic quality. However, genes associated with such traits may have sexually antagonistic effects on fitness. Here, using a bulb mite <i>Rhizoglyphus robini</i>, a species in which a distinct dimorphism exists between males in the expression of a sexually selected weapon, we compare inbreeding and gender load between lines derived from armed fighters and unarmed scramblers. After four generations of sib-mating, inbreeding depression for female fitness was significantly lower in fighter-derived lines compared to scrambler-derived lines, suggesting that fighter males had significantly higher genetic quality. However, outbred females from fighter-derived lines had significantly lower fitness compared to outbred females from scrambler-derived lines, demonstrating significant gender load associated with the presence of a sexually selected male weapon. Our results imply that under outbreeding, genetic benefits of mating with bearers of elaborate sexually selected traits might be swamped by the costs of decreased fitness of female progeny due to sexually antagonistic effects.</p>
Inbreeding depression in a sexually selected weapon and the homologue in females
<p>Theory predicts that traits with heightened condition-dependence, such as sexually selected traits, should be affected by inbreeding to a greater degree than other traits. The presence of environmental stress may compound the negative consequences of inbreeding depression. In this study we examined inbreeding depression across multiple traits and whether it increased with a known form of environmental stress. We conducted our experiment using both sexes of the sexually dimorphic leaf-footed cactus bug, <em>Narnia femorata </em>(Hemiptera: Coreidae). Adult male cactus bugs have enlarged hind legs used as weapons in male-male contests; these traits, and their homologue in females, have been previously found to exhibit high condition-dependence. In this study, we employed small developmental group size as an environmental stress challenge. Nymph <em>N. femorata</em> aggregate throughout their juvenile stages, and previous work has shown the negative effects of small group size on survivorship and body size. We found evidence of inbreeding depression for survival and seven out of the eight morphological traits measured, in both sexes. Inbreeding depression was higher for the size of the male weapon and the female homolog. Additionally, small developmental group size negatively affected survival to adulthood. However, small group size did not magnify the effects of inbreeding on morphological traits. These findings support the hypothesis that traits with heightened condition-dependence exhibit higher levels of inbreeding depression.</p>
Large and exaggerated sexually selected weapons comprise high proportions of metabolically inexpensive exoskeleton
<p>The cost-minimization hypothesis proposes that positive allometry in sexually selected traits can be explained if the proportional energetic maintenance costs of weapons decrease as traits increase in size. Energetic maintenance costs are the costs of maintaining homeostasis. They are slow, persistent energy sinks that are distinct from ephemeral costs of growth. Because some tissues expend more energy on maintenance than others, energetic maintenance costs can be inferred from proportional tissue composition. For example, soft tissues require more energy for maintenance than exoskeleton, so an arthropod claw that is 50% soft tissue and 50% exoskeleton would have higher energetic maintenance costs than one that is 30% soft tissue and 70% exoskeleton. I tested the cost-minimization hypothesis using proportional tissue composition as a proxy for energetic maintenance costs in snapping shrimp ( Alpheus heterochaelis and Alpheus estuariensis ) and fiddler crabs ( Uca pugilator ). As predicted, larger weapons comprised proportionally less soft tissue mass and more exoskeleton mass than smaller weapons. Furthermore, I extended cost-minimization to explain trait exaggeration: individuals might exaggerate traits by investing more mass in exoskeleton. As predicted, exoskeleton mass proportional to weapon mass increased as exaggeration increased. These results support and extend the cost-minimization hypothesis to explain positive allometry and weapon exaggeration.</p>
Data from: Sexually selected weapons can wear out, decreasing their effectiveness in combat
<p>Sexual selection has resulted in some of the most elaborate traits seen in animals, many of which are used as weapons. These weapons can be incredibly diverse, even within species. Such morphological variation has largely been attributed to the environment in which individuals are reared and their genetics. However, variation in weapon form could also be the result of a weapon wearing out from usage. This mechanism has received relatively little attention. In this study, we demonstrate that sexually selected weapons can wear out from repeated use, providing experimental evidence that weapon usage can contribute to the diversity of weapon shapes observed within species. In a second experiment, we demonstrate that having a worn-out weapon decreases an individual's fighting ability. This finding illustrates that the shape of a weapon can have an important role in determining contest outcomes. Overall, these results suggest that individuals are limited in the number of times they can effectively use their weapons, which may be one factor (amongst others) influencing how frequently an animal engages in a fight.</p>
A sexually-selected male weapon characterised by strong additive genetic variance and no evidence for sexually antagonistic polyphenic maintenance
<p><span>Sexual selection and sexual antagonism are important drivers of eco-evolutionary processes. The evolution of traits shaped by these processes depends on their genetic architecture, which remains poorly studied. Here, implementing a quantitative genetics approach using diallel crosses of the bulb mite, <em>Rhizoglyphus</em> <em>robini</em>, we investigated the genetic variance that underlies a sexually-selected weapon that is dimorphic among males and female fecundity. Previous studies indicated that a negative genetic correlation between these two traits likely exists. We found male morph showed considerable additive genetic variance, which is unlikely to be explained solely by mutation-selection balance, indicating the likely presence of large-effect loci. However, a significant magnitude of inbreeding depression also indicates that morph expression is likely to be condition-dependent to some degree and that deleterious recessives can simultaneously contribute to morph expression. Female fecundity also showed a high degree of inbreeding depression, but variance in female fecundity was mostly explained by epistatic effects, with very little contribution from additive effects. We found no significant genetic correlation, nor any evidence for dominance reversal, between male morph and female fecundity. The complex genetic architecture underlying male morph and female fecundity in this system has important implications for our understanding of the evolutionary interplay between purifying selection and sexually antagonistic selection.</span></p>
Sexually-selected male weapon increases the risk of population extinction under environmental change: An experimental evidence
<p><span>Exaggerated sexually-selected traits, occurring more commonly in males, help individuals to increase reproductive success, but are costly to produce and maintain. These costs on the one hand may improve population fitness by intensifying selection against maladapted males, but on the other hand may increase the risk of extinction under environmental challenge. However, the impact of sexually selected traits on extinction risk have not been investigated experimentally. We used replicate populations of a male-dimorphic mite, <em>Rhizoglyphus robini</em>, to test if prevalence of a sexually-selected weapon affected the risk of extinction under gradual temperature increase (20C per generation). In two independent experiments that utilized either inbred lines or lines mass selected for or against the weapon to establish experimental replicate populations differing in the prevalence of the weapon, we found that populations with high weapon prevalence were more likely to go extinct. Extinctions occurred despite partial suppression of the weapon expression at increased temperature and were not explained by increased male mortality. Our results provide the first, to our knowledge, experimental evidence demonstrating dramatic effect of elaborated sexual traits on the risk of extinction under environmental challenge.</span></p>
A sexually-selected male weapon characterised by strong additive genetic variance and no evidence for sexually antagonistic polyphenic maintenance
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Inbreeding depression in a sexually selected weapon and the homologue in females
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Sexually selected weapons can wear out, decreasing their effectiveness in combat
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Sexually-selected male weapon is associated with lower inbreeding load but higher gender load in the bulb mite
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Novel host plant leads to the loss of sexual dimorphism in a sexually-selected male weapon
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: The hidden cost of sexually selected traits: the metabolic expense of maintaining a sexually selected weapon
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Large and exaggerated sexually selected weapons comprise high proportions of metabolically inexpensive exoskeleton
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Do sexually selected weapons drive diversification?
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Males that drop a sexually-selected weapon grow larger testes
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Sexually-selected male weapon increases the risk of population extinction under environmental change: An experimental evidence
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
ScienceDex guides
Understand access before you commit
These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
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.