Sperm Competitive Ability Evolves in Response to Experimental Alteration of Operational Sex Ratio

Nandy, Bodhisatta; Chakraborty, Pratip; Gupta, Vanika; Syed, Zeeshan Ali; Prasad, Nagaraj Guru

doi:10.1111/evo.12076

Cited by 42 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Intensity of interlocus conflict is expected to be high under male biased condition, moderate under equal sex ratio and low under female biased regime. Evolution of sperm competitive ability in these selection regimes has already been reported [37]. We have shown that both components of sperm competitive ability (i.e., offense and defense) have declined under F-regime, while sperm defense has increased under M-regime [37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…The mechanism by which males cause increased mate-harm could be chemical (more toxic ejaculate) or physical (higher amount of courtship). At this point it is difficult to predict whether increase in mate-harming abilities of M-males is due to the evolution of behavioural components or due to the evolution of the ejaculate [37]. Increase in courtship frequency (discussed above) in M-males is an indication of changes in the physical component of mate-harm [6,7].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evolution of sperm competitive ability in these selection regimes has already been reported [37]. We have shown that both components of sperm competitive ability (i.e., offense and defense) have declined under F-regime, while sperm defense has increased under M-regime [37]. Here we report the evolution of (a) body size, (b) harming ability of the males (in terms of both mortality and fecundity), (b) courtship frequency, (c) spontaneous locomotor activity and (d) mean longevity and age specific survival rate under two conditions – reproducing and non-reproducing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evolution of mate-harm, longevity and behaviour in male fruit flies subjected to different levels of interlocus conflict

et al. 2013

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BackgroundInterlocus conflict predicts (a) evolution of traits, beneficial to males but detrimental to females and (b) evolution of aging and life-span under the influence of the cost of bearing these traits. However, there are very few empirical investigations shedding light on these predictions. Those that do address these issues, mostly reported response of male reproductive traits or the lack of it and do not address the life-history consequence of such evolution. Here, we test both the above mentioned predictions using experimental evolution on replicate populations of Drosophila melanogaster. We present responses observed after >45 generations of altered levels of interlocus conflict (generated by varying the operational sex ratio).ResultsMales from the male biased (high conflict, M-regime) regime evolved higher spontaneous locomotor activity and courtship frequency. Females exposed to these males were found to have higher mortality rate. Males from the female biased regime (low conflict, F-regime) did not evolve altered courtship frequency and activity. However, progeny production of females continuously exposed to F-males was significantly higher than the progeny production of females exposed to M-males indicating that the F-males are relatively benign towards their mates. We found that males from male biased regime lived shorter compared to males from the female biased regime.ConclusionF-males (evolving under lower levels of sexual conflict) evolved decreased mate harming ability indicating the cost of maintenance of the suit of traits that cause mate-harm. The M-males (evolving under higher levels sexual conflict) caused higher female mortality indicating that they had evolved increased mate harming ability, possibly as a by product of increased reproduction related activity. There was a correlated evolution of life-history of the M and F-males. M-regime males lived shorter compared to the males from F-regime, possibly due to the cost of investing more in reproductive traits. In combination, these results suggest that male reproductive traits and life-history traits can evolve in response to the altered levels of interlocus sexual conflict.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evolution of mate-harm, longevity and behaviour in male fruit flies subjected to different levels of interlocus conflict

et al. 2013

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“…Each of the three independent replicates of the female-biased regime (F 1,2,3 ) and the male-biased regime (M 1,2,3 ) were created by altering the sex ratio to female biased (1 male: 3 female) and male biased (3 male: 1 female) respectively 24 . All assays were done between the 95 th and 105 th generations of selection.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive Isolation through Experimental Manipulation of Sexually Antagonistic Coevolution in Drosophila melanogaster

Syed

Chatterjee

Samant

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Promiscuity can drive the evolution of sexual conflict before and after mating occurs. Post mating, the male ejaculate can selfishly manipulate female physiology, leading to a chemical arms race between the sexes. Theory suggests that drift and sexually antagonistic coevolution can cause allopatric populations to evolve different chemical interactions between the sexes, thereby leading to postmating reproductive barriers and speciation. There is, however, little empirical evidence supporting this form of speciation. We tested this theory by creating an experimental evolutionary model of Drosophila melanogaster populations undergoing different levels of interlocus sexual conflict. We found that allopatric populations under elevated sexual conflict show assortative mating, indicating premating reproductive isolation. Further, these allopatric populations also show reduced copulation duration and sperm defense ability when mating happens between individuals across populations compared to that within the same population, indicating postmating prezygotic isolation. Sexual conflict can cause reproductive isolation in allopatric populations through the coevolution of chemical (postmating prezygotic) as well as behavioural (premating) interactions between the sexes. Thus, to our knowledge, we provide the first comprehensive evidence of postmating (as well as premating) reproductive isolation due to sexual conflict.

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“…The LHst females were generated by collecting eggs from the LHst base population at a density of 70 eggs per vial and incubating the vials containing standard cornmeal-molasses-yeast food at standard laboratory conditions [43]. The flies started eclosing by 9th day post egg collection with peak eclosion on 10th day post egg collection.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Egg Viability, Mating Frequency and Male Mating Ability Evolve in Populations of Drosophila melanogaster Selected for Resistance to Cold Shock

2015

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BackgroundAbility to resist temperature shock is an important component of fitness of insects and other ectotherms. Increased resistance to temperature shock is known to affect life-history traits. Temperature shock is also known to affect reproductive traits such as mating ability and viability of gametes. Therefore selection for increased temperature shock resistance can affect the evolution of reproductive traits.MethodsWe selected replicate populations of Drosophila melanogaster for resistance to cold shock. We then investigated the evolution of reproductive behavior along with other components of fitness- larval survivorship, adult mortality, fecundity, egg viability in these populations.ResultsWe found that larval survivorship, adult mortality and fecundity post cold shock were not significantly different between selected and control populations. However, compared to the control populations, the selected populations laid significantly higher percentage of fertile eggs (egg viability) 24 hours post cold shock. The selected populations had higher mating frequency both with and without cold shock. After being subjected to cold shock, males from the selected populations successfully mated with significantly more non-virgin females and sired significantly more progeny compared to control males.ConclusionsA number of studies have reported the evolution of survivorship in response to selection for temperature shock resistance. Our results clearly indicate that adaptation to cold shock can involve changes in components of reproductive fitness. Our results have important implications for our understanding of how reproductive behavior can evolve in response to thermal stress.

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Sperm Competitive Ability Evolves in Response to Experimental Alteration of Operational Sex Ratio

Cited by 42 publications

References 56 publications

Evolution of mate-harm, longevity and behaviour in male fruit flies subjected to different levels of interlocus conflict

Evolution of mate-harm, longevity and behaviour in male fruit flies subjected to different levels of interlocus conflict

Reproductive Isolation through Experimental Manipulation of Sexually Antagonistic Coevolution in Drosophila melanogaster

Egg Viability, Mating Frequency and Male Mating Ability Evolve in Populations of Drosophila melanogaster Selected for Resistance to Cold Shock

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