Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Genome-wide targets of selection: female response to experimental removal of sexual selection in Drosophila melanogaster

Paolo Innocenti, Ilona Flis, Edward H. Morrow
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/000240
Paolo Innocenti
1Department of Ecology and Genetics, Evolutionary Biology Center, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ilona Flis
2Ecology, Behaviour and Environment Group, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Edward H. Morrow
1Department of Ecology and Genetics, Evolutionary Biology Center, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
2Ecology, Behaviour and Environment Group, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: ted.morrow@sussex.ac.uk
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

ABSTRACT

Despite the common assumption that promiscuity should in general be favored in males, but not in females, to date there is no consensus on the general impact of multiple mating on female fitness. Notably, very little is known about the genetic and physiological features underlying the female response to sexual selection pressures. By combining an experimental evolution approach with genomic techniques, we investigated the effects of single and multiple matings on female fecundity and gene expression. We experimentally manipulated the mating system in replicate populations of Drosophila melanogaster by removing sexual selection, with the aim of testing differences in short term post-mating effects of females evolved under different mating strategies. We show that monogamous females suffer decreased fecundity, a decrease that was partially recovered by experimentally reversing the selection pressure back to the ancestral promiscuous state. The post-mating gene expression profiles of monogamous females differ significantly from promiscuous females, involving 9% of the genes tested. These transcripts are active in several tissues, mainly ovaries, neural tissues and midgut, and are involved in metabolic processes, reproduction and signaling pathways. Our results demonstrate how the female post-mating response can evolve under different mating systems, and provide novel insights into the genes targeted by sexual selection in females, by identifying a list of candidate genes responsible for the decrease in female fecundity in the absence of promiscuity.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY Unported 3.0 license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted November 12, 2013.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Genome-wide targets of selection: female response to experimental removal of sexual selection in Drosophila melanogaster
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Genome-wide targets of selection: female response to experimental removal of sexual selection in Drosophila melanogaster
Paolo Innocenti, Ilona Flis, Edward H. Morrow
bioRxiv 000240; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/000240
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Genome-wide targets of selection: female response to experimental removal of sexual selection in Drosophila melanogaster
Paolo Innocenti, Ilona Flis, Edward H. Morrow
bioRxiv 000240; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/000240

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Evolutionary Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4658)
  • Biochemistry (10313)
  • Bioengineering (7636)
  • Bioinformatics (26241)
  • Biophysics (13481)
  • Cancer Biology (10650)
  • Cell Biology (15361)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (8464)
  • Ecology (12776)
  • Epidemiology (2067)
  • Evolutionary Biology (16794)
  • Genetics (11373)
  • Genomics (15431)
  • Immunology (10580)
  • Microbiology (25087)
  • Molecular Biology (10172)
  • Neuroscience (54233)
  • Paleontology (398)
  • Pathology (1660)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2884)
  • Physiology (4326)
  • Plant Biology (9213)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1582)
  • Synthetic Biology (2545)
  • Systems Biology (6761)
  • Zoology (1459)