Sexual selection maintains whole-body chiral dimorphism in snails

Autor:	Menno Schilthuizen, Edmund Gittenberger, J. Stone, Paul G. Craze, A. S. Cabanban, B.J. Scott, Angus Davison
Rok vydání:	2007
Předmět:	Sexual dimorphism Genetics Monomorphism Sinistral and dextral Amphidromus biology Sexual selection Gastropoda Spermatophore Zoology biology.organism_classification Fecundity Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics
Zdroj:	Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 20:1941-1949
ISSN:	1010-061X
DOI:	10.1111/j.1420-9101.2007.01370.x
Popis:	Although the vast majority of higher animals are fixed for one chiral morph or another, the cause for this directionality is known in only a few cases. In snails, for example, rare individuals of the opposite coil are unable to mate with individuals of normal coil, so directionality is maintained by frequencydependent selection. The snail subgenus Amphidromus presents an unexplained exception, because dextral (D) and sinistral (S) individuals occur sympatrically in roughly equal proportions (so-called ‘antisymmetry’) in most species. Here we show that in Amphidromus there is sexual selection for dimorphism, rather than selection for monomorphism. We found that matings between D and S individuals occur more frequently than expected by chance. Anatomical investigations showed that the chirality of the spermatophore and the female reproductive tract probably allow a greater fecundity in such interchiral matings. Computer simulation confirms that under these circumstances, sustained dimorphism is the expected outcome.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
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