Sexual conflict in a changing environment

Plesnar‐Bielak, Agata; Łukasiewicz, Aleksandra

doi:10.1111/brv.12728

Cited by 18 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 168 publications

(239 reference statements)

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“…The nature of environmental change can also influence the dynamics, intensity and demographic impacts of sexual conflict (Plesnar‐Bielak & Łukasiewicz, 2021). Whilst conflict can be resolved in a stable environment by various genomic mechanisms (Bonduriansky & Chenoweth, 2009), it remains commonplace across a diversity of species (Van Doorn, 2009) and can re‐emerge in novel ecological contexts (Plesnar‐Bielak & Łukasiewicz, 2021), and hence, it might be a strong force‐shaping eco‐evolutionary responses in the Anthropocene. Gene flow in spatially structured populations (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Escalating the conflict? Intersex genetic correlations influence adaptation to environmental change in facultatively migratory populations

Kane

Ayllón

O’Sullivan

et al. 2022

Evolutionary Applications

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Males and females are often subject to different and even opposing selection pressures. When a given trait has a shared genetic basis between the sexes, sexual conflict (antagonism) can arise. This can result in significant individual‐level fitness consequences that might also affect population performance, whilst anthropogenic environmental change can further exacerbate maladaptation in one or both sexes driven by sexual antagonism. Here, we develop a genetically explicit eco‐evolutionary model using an agent‐based framework to explore how a population of a facultatively migratory fish species (brown trout Salmo trutta) adapts to environmental change across a range of intersex genetic correlations for migration propensity, which influence the magnitude of sexual conflict. Our modelled focal trait represents a condition threshold governing whether individuals adopt a resident or anadromous (sea migration) tactic. Anadromy affords potential size‐mediated reproductive advantages to both males and females due to improved feeding opportunities at sea, but these can be undermined by high background marine mortality and survival/growth costs imposed by marine parasites (sea lice). We show that migration tactic frequency for a given set of environmental conditions is strongly influenced by the intersex genetic correlation, such that one sex can be dragged off its optimum more than the other. When this occurred in females in our model, population productivity was substantially reduced, but eco‐evolutionary outcomes were altered by allowing for sneaking behaviour in males. We discuss real‐world implications of our work given that anadromous salmonids are regularly challenged by sea lice infestations, which might act synergistically with other stressors such as climate change or fishing that impact marine performance, driving populations towards residency and potentially reduced resilience.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Escalating the conflict? Intersex genetic correlations influence adaptation to environmental change in facultatively migratory populations

Kane

Ayllón

O’Sullivan

et al. 2022

Evolutionary Applications

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“…While the occurrence of sexual dimorphism in trait means is widespread and very well known, the possibility that there can be sexual dimorphism in genetic and/or environmental trait variances is also embedded in core aspects of evolutionary quantitative genetic theory and increasingly evidenced in diverse empirical systems, resulting from some degree of sexspecific autosomal as well as sex-linked genetic effects (e.g., Lande 1980;Brommer et al 2007;Ober et al 2008;Wyman and Rowe 2014;Janicke et al 2016;Wolak et al 2018;Kaufmann et al 2021;van der Bijl and Mank 2021). Furthermore, degrees of sexual dimorphism, mating and reproductive systems, and magnitudes of sexually antagonistic selection and sexual conflict can commonly vary markedly with ecological and environmental conditions (e.g., Post et al 1999;Punzalan et al 2014;Taylor et al 2014;Connallon 2015;Connallon and Hall 2016;de Lisle et al 2018;Perry and Rowe 2018;Whitehead et al 2018;Zhou et al 2019;Chelini et al 2021;Plesnar-Bielak and Łukasiewicz 2021;Matzke et al 2022). Indeed, numerous threshold traits, including alternative reproductive tactics, can show rapid environmentally induced expression of alternative phenotypes, implying environmental modulation (i.e., plasticity) on both liability and phenotypic scales (Roff 1996;Dodson et al 2013;Neff and Svensson 2013;Reid and Acker 2022).…”

Section: Emergence and Modulation Of Ssdrs In Threshold(-like) Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intrinsic emergence and modulation of sex‐specific dominance reversals in threshold traits

Reid

2022

Evolution

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Sex‐specific dominance reversals (SSDRs) in fitness‐related traits, where heterozygotes' phenotypes resemble those of alternative homozygotes in females versus males, can simultaneously maintain genetic variation in fitness and resolve sexual conflict and thereby shape key evolutionary outcomes. However, the full implications of SSDRs will depend on how they arise and the resulting potential for evolutionary, ecological and environmental modulation. Recent field and laboratory studies have demonstrated SSDRs in threshold(‐like) traits with dichotomous or competitive phenotypic outcomes, implying that such traits could promote the emergence of SSDRs. However, such possibilities have not been explicitly examined. I show how phenotypic SSDRs can readily emerge in threshold traits given genetic architectures involving large‐effect loci alongside sexual dimorphism in the mean and variance in polygenic liability. I also show how multilocus SSDRs can arise in line‐cross experiments, especially given competitive reproductive systems that generate nonlinear fitness outcomes. SSDRs can consequently emerge in threshold(‐like) traits as functions of sexual antagonism, sexual dimorphism and reproductive systems, even with purely additive underlying genetic effects. Accordingly, I identify theoretical and empirical advances that are now required to discern the basis and occurrence of SSDRs in nature, probe forms of (co‐)evolutionary, ecological and environmental modulation, and evaluate net impacts on sexual conflict.

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“…First, male adaptations resulting from sexual conflict are typically condition-dependent, and therefore likely to depend on environmental conditions (Marden & Rollins, 1994; Plaistow & Siva-Jothy, 1996; Fricke et al ., 2009; Chung et al ., 2021; Rowe & Rundle, 2021). Second, independent of condition, environmental fluctuations can affect the expression and maintenance of traits involved in male harm, and thus their impact on population viability (Perry & Rowe, 2018; García-Roa et al ., 2020; Plesnar-Bielak & Lukasiewicz, 2021). This means that males in maladaptive environments will be less capable of harming females, raising intriguing questions about the interplay between environmental change, sexual selection, and evolutionary rescue.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Male harm suppresses female fitness to affect the dynamics of adaptation and evolutionary rescue

Gómez‐Llano

Faria

García‐Roa

et al. 2022

Preprint

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One of the most pressing questions we face as biologists is to understand how climate change will affect the evolutionary dynamics of natural populations and how these dynamics will in turn affect population recovery. Increasing evidence shows that sexual selection favours population viability and local adaptation. However, sexual selection can also foster sexual conflict and drive the evolution of male harm to females. Male harm is extraordinarily widespread and has the potential to suppress female fitness and compromise population growth, yet we currently ignore its net effects across taxa, or its effects on local adaptation and evolutionary rescue. We conducted a comparative meta-analysis to quantify the impact of male harm on female fitness and found an overall negative effect of male harm on female fitness. Negative effects seem to depend on proxies of sexual selection, increasing in species with larger sexual size dimorphism and strong sperm competition. We then developed theoretical models to explore how male harm affects adaptation and evolutionary rescue. We show that, when sexual conflict depends on local adaptation, population decline is reduced, but at the cost of slowing down genetic adaptation. This trade-off suggests that eco-evolutionary feedbacks on sexual conflict can act like a double-edge sword, reducing extinction risk by buffering the demographic costs of climate change, but delaying genetic adaptation. However, variation in the mating system and male harm type can mitigate this trade-off. Our work shows that male harm has widespread negative effects on female fitness and productivity, identifies potential mechanistic factors underlying variability in such costs across taxa, and underscores the importance of male harm on the demographic and evolutionary processes that impact how species adapt to environmental change.

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Sexual conflict in a changing environment

Cited by 18 publications

References 168 publications

Escalating the conflict? Intersex genetic correlations influence adaptation to environmental change in facultatively migratory populations

Escalating the conflict? Intersex genetic correlations influence adaptation to environmental change in facultatively migratory populations

Intrinsic emergence and modulation of sex‐specific dominance reversals in threshold traits

Male harm suppresses female fitness to affect the dynamics of adaptation and evolutionary rescue

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