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Effectiveness of sexual selection in removing mutations induced with ionizing radiation
Author(s) -
Radwan Jacek
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00681.x
Subject(s) - biology , sexual selection , selection (genetic algorithm) , ionizing radiation , population , mutation rate , competition (biology) , mutation , ecology , toxicology , genetics , zoology , evolutionary biology , demography , gene , irradiation , physics , artificial intelligence , sociology , computer science , nuclear physics
Because of the production of males, sexual populations are expected to incur a 50% cost in potential growth rate. However, theory predicts that sexual competition between males can compensate for this cost by decreasing the mutation load of sexual populations. To test this hypothesis, I induced mutations in male bulb mites with ionizing radiation and subjected their progeny (F 1 ) to two selective regimes differing in opportunity for sexual selection. Mutations which were not removed by selection acting on the F 1 decreased embryonic viability in the F 2 . Viability was significantly higher in the treatment in which there was an opportunity for sexual selection than in the treatment in which sexual selection was experimentally eliminated. The results indicate that sexual selection can increase population fitness and, at least partly, compensate for the cost of sex.