Natural selection increases female fitness by reversing the exaggeration of a male sexually selected trait.

ABSTRACT: Theory shows how sexual selection can exaggerate male traits beyond naturally selected optima and also how natural selection can ultimately halt trait elaboration. Empirical evidence supports this theory, but to our knowledge, there have been no experimental evolution studies directly testing this logic, and little examination of possible associated effects on female fitness. Here we use experimental evolution of replicate populations of broad-horned flour beetles to test for effects of sex-specific predation on an exaggerated sexually selected male trait (the mandibles), while also testing for effects on female lifetime reproductive success. We find that populations subjected to male-specific predation evolve smaller sexually selected mandibles and this indirectly increases female fitness

SUBMITTER: Okada K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8187464 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature