Sexual Selection Does Not Increase the Rate of Compensatory Adaptation to a Mutation Influencing a Secondary Sexual Trait in Drosophila melanogaster

Theoretical work predicts that sexual selection can enhance natural selection, increasing the rate of adaptation to new environments and helping purge harmful mutations. While some experiments support these predictions, remarkably little work has addressed the role of sexual selection on compensator...

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Main Authors: Christopher H. Chandler, Anna Mammel, Ian Dworkin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press 2020-05-01
Series:G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics
Subjects:
Online Access:http://g3journal.org/lookup/doi/10.1534/g3.119.400934
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spelling doaj-3af2f0ed12fb455c8d16a5334f39214e2021-07-02T05:37:43ZengOxford University PressG3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics2160-18362020-05-011051541155110.1534/g3.119.40093410Sexual Selection Does Not Increase the Rate of Compensatory Adaptation to a Mutation Influencing a Secondary Sexual Trait in Drosophila melanogasterChristopher H. ChandlerAnna MammelIan DworkinTheoretical work predicts that sexual selection can enhance natural selection, increasing the rate of adaptation to new environments and helping purge harmful mutations. While some experiments support these predictions, remarkably little work has addressed the role of sexual selection on compensatory adaptation—populations’ ability to compensate for the costs of deleterious alleles that are already present. We tested whether sexual selection, as well as the degree of standing genetic variation, affect the rate of compensatory evolution via phenotypic suppression in experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster. These populations were fixed for a spontaneous mutation causing mild abnormalities in the male sex comb, a structure important for mating success. We fine-mapped this mutation to an ∼85 kb region on the X chromosome containing three candidate genes, showed that the mutation is deleterious, and that its phenotypic expression and penetrance vary by genetic background. We then performed experimental evolution, including a treatment where opportunity for mate choice was limited by experimentally enforced monogamy. Although evolved populations did show some phenotypic suppression of the morphological abnormalities in the sex comb, the amount of suppression did not depend on the opportunity for sexual selection. Sexual selection, therefore, may not always enhance natural selection; instead, the interaction between these two forces may depend on additional factors.http://g3journal.org/lookup/doi/10.1534/g3.119.400934sex combsex combs distalscd1deleterious mutationdrosophilacompensatory evolutionsexual selectionnatural selection
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Christopher H. Chandler
Anna Mammel
Ian Dworkin
spellingShingle Christopher H. Chandler
Anna Mammel
Ian Dworkin
Sexual Selection Does Not Increase the Rate of Compensatory Adaptation to a Mutation Influencing a Secondary Sexual Trait in Drosophila melanogaster
G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics
sex comb
sex combs distal
scd1
deleterious mutation
drosophila
compensatory evolution
sexual selection
natural selection
author_facet Christopher H. Chandler
Anna Mammel
Ian Dworkin
author_sort Christopher H. Chandler
title Sexual Selection Does Not Increase the Rate of Compensatory Adaptation to a Mutation Influencing a Secondary Sexual Trait in Drosophila melanogaster
title_short Sexual Selection Does Not Increase the Rate of Compensatory Adaptation to a Mutation Influencing a Secondary Sexual Trait in Drosophila melanogaster
title_full Sexual Selection Does Not Increase the Rate of Compensatory Adaptation to a Mutation Influencing a Secondary Sexual Trait in Drosophila melanogaster
title_fullStr Sexual Selection Does Not Increase the Rate of Compensatory Adaptation to a Mutation Influencing a Secondary Sexual Trait in Drosophila melanogaster
title_full_unstemmed Sexual Selection Does Not Increase the Rate of Compensatory Adaptation to a Mutation Influencing a Secondary Sexual Trait in Drosophila melanogaster
title_sort sexual selection does not increase the rate of compensatory adaptation to a mutation influencing a secondary sexual trait in drosophila melanogaster
publisher Oxford University Press
series G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics
issn 2160-1836
publishDate 2020-05-01
description Theoretical work predicts that sexual selection can enhance natural selection, increasing the rate of adaptation to new environments and helping purge harmful mutations. While some experiments support these predictions, remarkably little work has addressed the role of sexual selection on compensatory adaptation—populations’ ability to compensate for the costs of deleterious alleles that are already present. We tested whether sexual selection, as well as the degree of standing genetic variation, affect the rate of compensatory evolution via phenotypic suppression in experimental populations of Drosophila melanogaster. These populations were fixed for a spontaneous mutation causing mild abnormalities in the male sex comb, a structure important for mating success. We fine-mapped this mutation to an ∼85 kb region on the X chromosome containing three candidate genes, showed that the mutation is deleterious, and that its phenotypic expression and penetrance vary by genetic background. We then performed experimental evolution, including a treatment where opportunity for mate choice was limited by experimentally enforced monogamy. Although evolved populations did show some phenotypic suppression of the morphological abnormalities in the sex comb, the amount of suppression did not depend on the opportunity for sexual selection. Sexual selection, therefore, may not always enhance natural selection; instead, the interaction between these two forces may depend on additional factors.
topic sex comb
sex combs distal
scd1
deleterious mutation
drosophila
compensatory evolution
sexual selection
natural selection
url http://g3journal.org/lookup/doi/10.1534/g3.119.400934
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