Premium
Does operational sex ratio influence relative strength of purging selection in males versus females?
Author(s) -
PlesnarBielak Agata,
Sychta Karolina,
Gaczorek Tomasz S.,
Palka Joanna K.,
Prus Monika A.,
Prokop Zofia M.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of evolutionary biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.289
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1420-9101
pISSN - 1010-061X
DOI - 10.1111/jeb.13547
Subject(s) - biology , sexual selection , selection (genetic algorithm) , affect (linguistics) , sex ratio , operational sex ratio , demography , sexual dimorphism , genetics , zoology , population , mating system , mating , psychology , communication , artificial intelligence , sociology , computer science
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.