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Sex‐specific associations between life‐history traits and a novel reproductive polymorphism in the Pacific field cricket
Author(s) -
Richardson Jon,
HeinenKay Justa L.,
Zuk Marlene
Publication year - 2021
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.13758
Subject(s) - biology , field cricket , cricket , life history theory , population , genetics , wing , life history , polymorphism (computer science) , zoology , allele , evolutionary biology , demography , ecology , gene , aerospace engineering , sociology , engineering
Associations between heritable polymorphisms and life‐history traits, such as development time or reproductive investment, may play an underappreciated role in maintaining polymorphic systems. This is because selection acting on a particular morph could be bolstered or disrupted by correlated changes in life history or vice versa. In a Hawaiian population of the Pacific field cricket ( Teleogryllus oceanicus ), a novel mutation ( flatwing ) on the X‐chromosome is responsible for a heritable polymorphism in male wing structure. We used laboratory cricket colonies fixed for male wing morph to investigate whether males and females bearing the flatwing or normal‐wing (wild‐type) allele differed in their life‐history traits. We found that flatwing males developed faster and had heavier testes than normal‐wings , whereas flatwing homozygous females developed slower and had lighter reproductive tissues than normal‐wing homozygous females. Our results advance our understanding of the evolution of polymorphisms by demonstrating that the genetic change responsible for a reproductive polymorphism can also have consequences for fundamental life‐history traits in both males and females.