Direct and indirect effects of male genital elaboration in female seed beetles

Arnqvist, Göran, Grieshop, Karl ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8925-5066, Hotzy, Cosima, Rönn, Johanna, Polak, Michal and Rowe, Locke (2021) Direct and indirect effects of male genital elaboration in female seed beetles. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 288 (1954). ISSN 0962-8452

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Abstract

Our understanding of coevolution between male genitalia and female traits remains incomplete. This is perhaps especially true for genital traits that cause internal injuries in females, such as the spiny genitalia of seed beetles where males with relatively long spines enjoy a high relative fertilization success. We report on a new set of experiments, based on extant selection lines, aimed at assessing the effects of long male spines on females in Callosobruchus maculatus. We first draw on an earlier study using microscale laser surgery, and demonstrate that genital spines have a direct negative (sexually antagonistic) effect on female fecundity. We then ask whether artificial selection for long versus short spines resulted in direct or indirect effects on female lifetime offspring production. Reference females mating with males from long-spine lines had higher offspring production, presumably due to an elevated allocation in males to those ejaculate components that are beneficial to females. Remarkably, selection for long male genital spines also resulted in an evolutionary increase in female offspring production as a correlated response. Our findings thus suggest that female traits that affect their response to male spines are both under direct selection to minimize harm but are also under indirect selection (a good genes effect), consistent with the evolution of mating and fertilization biases being affected by several simultaneous processes.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding Information: This study was supported by grants from the European Research Council (GENCON AdG-294333), the Swedish Research Council (grant nos. 2014-4523; 2019-03611) and FORMAS (grant no. 2018-00705) to G.A. L.R. was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. M.P. was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) USA grant no. DEB-1654417. K.G. was supported by the Swedish Research Council (grant no. 2018-06775).
Uncontrolled Keywords: artificial selection,female choice,genital evolution,good genes,primary sexual traits,sexual conflict,immunology and microbiology(all),biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology(all),environmental science(all),agricultural and biological sciences(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2400
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 07 Oct 2023 01:24
Last Modified: 27 Nov 2024 10:40
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/93158
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1068

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