10.5061/DRYAD.96NG4
Wensing, Kristina U.
University of Münster
Koppik, Mareike
University of Münster
Fricke, Claudia
University of Münster
Data from: Precopulatory but not postcopulatory male reproductive traits
diverge in response to mating system manipulation in Drosophila
melanogaster
Dryad
dataset
2018
cost of mating
2018-09-15T00:00:00Z
2018-09-15T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3542
276613 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Competition between males creates potential for pre- and postcopulatory
sexual selection and conflict. Theory predicts that males facing risk of
sperm competition should evolve traits to secure their reproductive
success. If those traits are costly to females, the evolution of such
traits may also increase conflict between the sexes. Conversely, under the
absence of sperm competition, one expectation is for selection on male
competitive traits to relax thereby also relaxing sexual conflict.
Experimental evolution studies are a powerful tool to test this
expectation. Studies in multiple insect species have yielded mixed and
partially conflicting results. In this study, we evaluated male
competitive traits and male effects on female costs of mating in
Drosophila melanogaster after replicate lines evolved for more than 50
generations either under enforced monogamy or sustained polygamy, thus
manipulating the extent of intrasexual competition between males. We found
that in a setting where males competed directly with a rival male for
access to a female and fertilization of her ova polygamous males had
superior reproductive success compared to monogamous males. When comparing
reproductive success solely in double mating standard sperm competition
assays, however, we found no difference in male sperm defense
competitiveness between the different selection regimes. Instead, we found
monogamous males to be inferior in precopulatory competition, which
indicates that in our system, enforced monogamy relaxed selection on
traits important in precopulatory rather than postcopulatory competition.
We discuss our findings in the context of findings from previous
experimental evolution studies in Drosophila ssp. and other invertebrate
species.
rawdata for all experimentsThis file includes rawdata for all phenotypes
described within this study.rawdata_for_dryad.xlsx