Genetic Constraints and the Evolution of Display Trait Sexual Dimorphism by Natural and Sexual Selection

Chenoweth, Stephen F.; Rundle, Howard D.; Blows, Mark W.

doi:10.1086/523946

Cited by 113 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…Male sexually selected traits often have homologous traits in females, and selection can, therefore, be exerted on the genetic variance underlying male traits when expressed in females, mediated through the intersex genetic correlations (35). Female D. serrata express the same CHCs as males, and average intersex genetic correlations for these traits across nine populations vary between 0.61 and 0.89 (36). Female fitness exerted a similar pattern of selection on the male traits: directional selection on CHC genotypes was detectable for only two of eight traits (Table 1) and was absent on CHCg max , the trait representing the major axis of genetic variance in CHCs.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary optimum for male sexual traits characterized using the multivariate Robertson–Price Identity

Delcourt

Blows

Aguirre

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Phenotypes tend to remain relatively constant in natural populations, suggesting a limit to trait evolution. Although stationary phenotypes suggest stabilizing selection, directional selection is more commonly reported. However, selection on phenotypes will have no evolutionary consequence if the traits do not genetically covary with fitness, a covariance known as the Robertson-Price Identity. The nature of this genetic covariance determines if phenotypes will evolve directionally or whether they reside at an evolutionary optimum. Here, we show how a set of traits can be shown to be under net stabilizing selection through an application of the multivariate Robertson-Price Identity. We characterize how a suite of male sexual displays genetically covaries with fitness in a population of Drosophila serrata. Despite strong directional sexual selection on these phenotypes directly and significant genetic variance in them, little genetic covariance was detected with overall fitness. Instead, genetic analysis of trait deviations showed substantial stabilizing selection on the genetic variance of these traits with respect to overall fitness, indicating that they reside at an evolutionary optimum. In the presence of widespread pleiotropy, stabilizing selection on focal traits will arise through the net effects of selection on other, often unmeasured, traits and will tend to be stronger on trait combinations than single traits. Such selection may be difficult to detect in phenotypic analyses if the environmental covariance between the traits and fitness obscures the underlying genetic associations. The genetic analysis of trait deviations provides a way of detecting the missing stabilizing selection inferred by recent metaanalyses. cuticular hydrocarbons | evolutionary stasis

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary optimum for male sexual traits characterized using the multivariate Robertson–Price Identity

Delcourt

Blows

Aguirre

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Further evidence suggesting that genetic correlations do not necessarily cause long-term constraint comes from the sexual dimorphism literature. Genetic correlations between the same trait expressed in males and females are usually very high (Roff 1997, p. 247), but sexual dimorphism is common and often evolves rapidly (Badyaev 2002;Chenoweth et al 2008) in spite of this high correlation. There is evidence for a negative correlation between the across-sex genetic correlation and the degree of sexual dimorphism, suggesting some constraint, but the relationship is very weak (Poissant et al 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid Independent Trait Evolution despite a Strong Pleiotropic Genetic Correlation

Conner¹,

Karoly²,

Stewart³

et al. 2011

The American Naturalist

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. abstract: Genetic correlations are the most commonly studied of all potential constraints on adaptive evolution. We present a comprehensive test of constraints caused by genetic correlation, comparing empirical results to predictions from theory. The additive genetic correlation between the filament and the corolla tube in wild radish flowers is very high in magnitude, is estimated with good precision ( ), and is caused by pleiotropy. Thus, evolu-0.85 ‫ע‬ 0.06 tionary changes in the relative lengths of these two traits should be constrained. Still, artificial selection produced rapid evolution of these traits in opposite directions, so that in one replicate relative to controls, the difference between them increased by six standard deviations in only nine generations. This would result in a 54% increase in relative fitness on the basis of a previous estimate of natural selection in this population, and it would produce the phenotypes found in the most extreme species in the family Brassicaceae in less than 100 generations. These responses were within theoretical expectations and were much slower than if the genetic correlation was zero; thus, there was evidence for constraint. These results, coupled with comparable results from other species, show that evolution can be rapid despite the constraints caused by genetic correlations.

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“…The genetic basis of female preference was estimated through the random-effects part of model (1) We therefore reduced the vector of parameters to be estimated at this level (Meyer 1991), an approach that is required whenever traits are measured on different individuals, such as when estimating intersex genetic correlations (Chenoweth et al 2008). We estimated a separate error for groups of sires that had different numbers of daughters included in the experiment to account for the heterogeneity expected as a consequence of family sample size.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Analysis of Female Preference Functions as Function‐Valued Traits

McGuigan

Homrigh

Blows

2008

The American Naturalist

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. abstract: The genetic analysis of female preferences has been seen as a particularly challenging empirical endeavor because of difficulties in generating suitable preference metrics in experiments large enough to adequately characterize variation. In this article, we take an alternative approach, treating female preference as a function-valued trait and exploiting random-coefficient models to characterize the genetic basis of female preference without measuring preference functions in each individual. Applying this approach to Drosophila bunnanda, in which females assess males through a multivariate contact pheromone system, we gain three valuable insights into the genetic basis of female preference functions. First, most genetic variation was attributable to one eigenfunction, suggesting shared genetic control of preferences for nine male pheromones. Second, genetic variance in female preference functions was not associated with genetic variance in the pheromones, implying that genetic variation in female preference did not maintain genetic variation in male traits. Finally, breeding values for female preference functions were skewed away from the direction of selection on the male traits, suggesting directional selection on female preferences. The genetic analysis of female preference functions as function-valued traits offers a robust statistical framework for investigations of female preference, in addition to alleviating some experimental difficulties associated with estimating variation in preference functions.

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Genetic Constraints and the Evolution of Display Trait Sexual Dimorphism by Natural and Sexual Selection

Cited by 113 publications

References 82 publications

Evolutionary optimum for male sexual traits characterized using the multivariate Robertson–Price Identity

Evolutionary optimum for male sexual traits characterized using the multivariate Robertson–Price Identity

Rapid Independent Trait Evolution despite a Strong Pleiotropic Genetic Correlation

Genetic Analysis of Female Preference Functions as Function‐Valued Traits

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