Sexual selection reveals a cost of pathogen resistance undetected in life-history assays.

ABSTRACT: Mechanisms of resistance to pathogens and parasites are thought to be costly and thus to lead to evolutionary trade-offs between resistance and life-history traits expressed in the absence of the infective agents. On the other hand, sexually selected traits are often proposed to indicate "good genes" for resistance, which implies a positive genetic correlation between resistance and success in sexual selection. Here I show that experimental evolution of improved resistance to the intestinal pathogen Pseudomonas entomophila in Drosophila melanogaster was associated with a reduction in male sexual success. Males from four resistant populations achieved lower paternity than males from four susceptible control populations in competition with males from a competitor strain, indicating an evolut

SUBMITTER: Kawecki TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7028033 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature