Association of polyandry and sex-ratio drive prevalence in natural populations of Drosophila neotestacea.

ABSTRACT: Selfish genetic elements bias their own transmission to the next generation, even at the expense of the fitness of their carrier. Sex-ratio (SR) meiotic drive occurs when an X-chromosome causes Y-bearing sperm to die during male spermatogenesis, so that it is passed on to all of the male's offspring, which are all daughters. How SR is maintained as a stable polymorphism in the absence of genetic suppressors of drive is unknown. Here, we investigate the potential for the female remating rate to affect SR dynamics in natural populations, using the fly Drosophila neotestacea. In controlled laboratory conditions, females from populations where SR is rare mate more often than females from populations where SR is common. Furthermore, only when males mate multiply does the average fertility of SR

SUBMITTER: Pinzone CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3768301 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature