Does operational sex ratio influence relative strength of purging selection in males versus females?

Autor: Plesnar-Bielak A; Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland., Sychta K; Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland., Gaczorek TS; Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland., Palka JK; Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland., Prus MA; Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland., Prokop ZM; Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of evolutionary biology [J Evol Biol] 2020 Jan; Vol. 33 (1), pp. 80-88. Date of Electronic Publication: 2019 Oct 10.
DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13547
Abstrakt: According to theory, sexual selection in males may efficiently purge mutation load of sexual populations, reducing or fully compensating 'the cost of males'. For this to occur, mutations not only need to be deleterious to both sexes, they also must affect males more than females. A frequently overlooked problem is that relative strength of selection on males versus females may vary between environments, with social conditions being particularly likely to affect selection in males and females differently. Here, we induced mutations in red flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum) and tested their effect in both sexes under three different operational sex ratios (1:2, 1:1 and 2:1). Induced mutations decreased fitness of both males and females, but their effect was not stronger in males. Surprisingly, operational sex ratio did not affect selection against deleterious mutations nor its relative strength in the sexes. Thus, our results show no support for the role of sexual selection in the evolutionary maintenance of sex.
(© 2019 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2019 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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