Adaptation to a bacterial pathogen in Drosophila melanogaster is not aided by sexual selection.

ABSTRACT: Theory predicts that sexual selection should aid adaptation to novel environments, but empirical support for this idea is limited. Pathogens are a major driver of host evolution and, unlike abiotic selection pressures, undergo epidemiological and co-evolutionary cycles with the host involving adaptation and counteradaptation. Because of this, populations harbor ample genetic variation underlying immunity and the opportunity for sexual selection based on condition-dependent "good genes" is expected to be large. In this study, we evolved populations of Drosophila melanogaster in a 2-way factorial design manipulating sexual selection and pathogen presence, using a gram-negative insect pathogen Pseudomonas entomophila, for 14 generations. We then examined how the presence of sexu

SUBMITTER: Sharda S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8840902 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature