The effects of a bacterial challenge on reproductive success of fruit flies evolved under low or high sexual selection.

ABSTRACT: The capacity of individuals to cope with stress, for example, from pathogen exposure, might decrease with increasing levels of sexual selection, although it remains unclear which sex should be more sensitive. Here, we measured the ability of each sex to maintain high reproductive success following challenges with either heat-killed bacteria or procedural control, across replicate populations of Drosophila melanogaster evolved under either high or low levels of sexual selection. Our experiment was run across four separate sampling blocks. We found an interaction between bacterial treatment, sexual selection treatment, and sampling block on female reproductive success. Specifically, and only in the fourth block, we observed that bacterial-challenged females that had evolved under high

SUBMITTER: Nystrand M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6194216 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature