Constrained evolution of the sex comb in Drosophila simulans.

ABSTRACT: Male fitness is dependent on sexual traits that influence mate acquisition (precopulatory sexual selection) and paternity (post-copulatory sexual selection), and although many studies have documented the form of selection in one or the other of these arenas, fewer have done it for both. Nonetheless, it appears that the dominant form of sexual selection is directional, although theoretically, populations should converge on peaks in the fitness surface, where selection is stabilizing. Many factors, however, can prevent populations from reaching adaptive peaks. Genetic constraints can be important if they prevent the development of highest fitness phenotypes, as can the direction of selection if it reverses across episodes of selection. In this study, we examine the evidence that these proces

SUBMITTER: Maraqa MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5324616 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature