Search results for "ELECTION"
showing 10 items of 2159 documents
Data from: Multiple quantitative trait loci influence intra-specific variation in genital morphology between phylogenetically distinct lines of Droso…
2011
The evolution of animal genitalia has gained renewed interest, because of their potential roles during sexual selection and early stages of species formation. Although central to understanding the evolutionary process, knowledge of the genetic basis of natural variation in genital morphology is limited to a very few species. Using an out-bred cross between phylogenetically distinct lines of Drosophila montana, we characterized quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting the size and shape of the distiphallus, a prominent part of the male intromittent organ. Our microsatellite-based linkage analysis shows that intra-specific variation of the distiphallus involves several QTLs of largely additiv…
Data from: No evidence for prezygotic postcopulatory avoidance of kin despite high inbreeding depression
2018
Offspring resulting from mating among close relatives can suffer from impaired fitness through the expression of recessive alleles with deleterious effects. Post-copulatory sperm selection (a pre-zygotic mechanism of cryptic female choice) has been suggested to be an effective way to avoid inbreeding. To investigate whether post-copulatory female choice allows avoiding fertilization by close kin, we performed artificial inseminations in a promiscuous bird, the houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata undulata). Females were inseminated with a mix of sperm from triads of males, each constituted of a male genetically unrelated to the female, a first cousin, and a half-sibling. When counting the …
Data from: Simultaneous age-dependent and age-independent sexual selection in the lekking black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix)
2016
Individuals' reproductive success is often strongly associated with their age, with typical patterns of early-life reproductive improvement and late-life senescence. These age-related patterns are due to the inherent trade-offs between life-history traits competing for a limited amount of resources available to the organisms. In males, such trade-offs are exacerbated by the resource requirements associated with the expression of costly sexual traits, leading to dynamic changes in trait expression throughout their life span. Due to the age dependency of male phenotypes, the relationship between the expression of male traits and mating success can also vary with male age. Hence, using longitu…
Data from: Intensity of male-male competition predicts morph diversity in a colour polymorphic lizard
2017
Sexual selection is one of the main processes involved in the emergence and maintenance of heritable colour polymorphisms in a variety of taxa. Here we test whether the intensity of sexual selection, estimated from population sex ratio, predicts morph diversity in Podarcis muralis, a colour polymorphic lizard with discrete white, yellow, orange, white-orange, and yellow-orange male and female phenotypes (i.e. morphs). In a sample of 116 Pyrenean populations and 5421 lizards, sex ratios (m/f) vary from 0.29 to 2.5, with the number of morphs for each sex ranging from 2 to 5. Male-biased sex ratios are associated with increased morph diversity as measured with Shannon's diversity index. The ma…
Data from: Postmating-prezygotic isolation between two allopatric populations of Drosophila montana: fertilisation success differs under sperm compet…
2017
Postmating but prezygotic (PMPZ) interactions are increasingly recognized as a potentially important early-stage barrier in the evolution of reproductive isolation. A recent study described a potential example between populations of the same species: single matings between Drosophila montana populations resulted in differential fertilisation success because of the inability of sperm from one population (Vancouver) to penetrate the eggs of the other population (Colorado). As the natural mating system of D. montana is polyandrous (females remate rapidly), we set up double matings of all possible crosses between the same populations to test whether competitive effects between ejaculates influe…
Data from: Negative frequency-dependent selection of sexually antagonistic alleles in Myodes glareolus
2011
Sexually antagonistic genetic variation, where optimal values of traits are sex-dependent, is known to slow the loss of genetic variance associated with directional selection on fitness-related traits. However, sexual antagonism alone is not sufficient to maintain variation indefinitely. Selection of rare forms within the sexes can help to conserve genotypic diversity. We combined theoretical models and a field experiment with Myodes glareolus to show that negative frequency-dependent selection on male dominance maintains variation in sexually antagonistic alleles. In our experiment, high-dominance male bank voles were found to have low-fecundity sisters, and vice versa. These results show …
Data from: Fluctuating temperature leads to evolution of thermal generalism and preadaptation to novel environments
2013
Environmental fluctuations can select for generalism, which is also hypothesized to increase organisms’ ability to invade novel environments. Here, we show that across a range of temperatures, opportunistic bacterial pathogen Serratia marcescens that evolved in fluctuating temperature (daily variation between 24°C and 38°C, mean 31°C) outperforms the strains that evolved in constant temperature (31°C). The growth advantage was also evident in novel environments in the presence of parasitic viruses and predatory protozoans, but less clear in the presence of stressful chemicals. Adaptation to fluctuating temperature also led to reduced virulence in Drosophila melanogaster host, which suggests…
Data from: Very high MHC Class IIB diversity without spatial differentiation in the Mediterranean population of Greater Flamingos
2017
MHC Class II Genotype data Greater Flamingo MHC Class IIB genoptype data of four Mediterranean breeding colonies: France, Spain, Algeria and Turkey MHCClassIIGenotypeGreaterFlamingo.xlsx
Data from: Inbreeding reveals mode of past selection on male reproductive characters in Drosophila melanogaster
2013
Directional dominance is a prerequisite of inbreeding depression. Directionality arises when selection drives alleles that increase fitness to fixation and eliminates dominant deleterious alleles, while deleterious recessives are hidden from it and maintained at low frequencies. Traits under directional selection (i.e., fitness traits) are expected to show directional dominance and therefore an increased susceptibility to inbreeding depression. In contrast, traits under stabilizing selection or weakly linked to fitness are predicted to exhibit little-to-no inbreeding depression. Here, we quantify the extent of inbreeding depression in a range of male reproductive characters and then infer t…
Data from: The evolutionary dynamics of adaptive virginity, sex-allocation and altruistic helping in haplodiploid animals
2017
In haplodiploids, females can produce sons from unfertilized eggs without mating. However, virgin reproduction is usually considered to be a result of a failure to mate, rather than an adaptation. Here we build an analytical model for evolution of virgin reproduction, sex-allocation, and altruistic female helping in haplodiploid taxa. We show that when mating is costly (e.g. when mating increases predation risk), virginity can evolve as an adaptive female reproductive strategy. Furthermore, adaptive virginity results in strongly divergent sex-ratios in mated and virgin queen nests (‘split sex ratios’), which promotes the evolution of altruistic helping by daughters in mated queen nests. How…