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Natural selection reverses the exaggeration of a male sexually selected trait, which increases female fitness

Kensuke Okada, View ORCID ProfileMasako Katsuki, Manmohan D. Sharma, Katsuya Kiyose, Tomokazu Seko, View ORCID ProfileYasukazu Okada, Alastair J. Wilson, David J. Hosken
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.15.340562
Kensuke Okada
1Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science, 111 Tsushima-naka, Okayama City, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
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Masako Katsuki
2Department of Agricultural and Environmental Biology, The University of Tokyo, Yayoi 1-1-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan
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  • ORCID record for Masako Katsuki
Manmohan D. Sharma
3Centre for Ecology & Conservation, University of Exeter, Cornwall, UK
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Katsuya Kiyose
1Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science, 111 Tsushima-naka, Okayama City, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
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Tomokazu Seko
4National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Central Region Agricultural Research Center, Kannondai 2-1-18, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8666, Japan
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Yasukazu Okada
5Department of Biological Sciences, School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Minamiohsawa 1-1, Hachiohji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan
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Alastair J. Wilson
3Centre for Ecology & Conservation, University of Exeter, Cornwall, UK
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David J. Hosken
3Centre for Ecology & Conservation, University of Exeter, Cornwall, UK
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  • For correspondence: d.j.hosken@exeter.ac.uk
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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 date, there have been no experimental evolution studies directly testing this logic, and little examination of possible associated effects on female fitness. Here we used experimental evolution of replicate populations of broad-horned flour-beetles to test for evolutionary effects of sex-specific predation on an exaggerated sexually selected male trait, while also testing for effects on female lifetime reproductive success. We found that populations subjected to male-specific predation evolved smaller sexually selected traits and this indirectly increased female fitness, seemingly through intersexual genetic correlations we documented. Predation solely on females had no effects. Our findings support fundamental theory, but also reveal novel outcomes when natural selection targets sex-limited sexually selected characters.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted October 16, 2020.
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Natural selection reverses the exaggeration of a male sexually selected trait, which increases female fitness
Kensuke Okada, Masako Katsuki, Manmohan D. Sharma, Katsuya Kiyose, Tomokazu Seko, Yasukazu Okada, Alastair J. Wilson, David J. Hosken
bioRxiv 2020.10.15.340562; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.15.340562
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Natural selection reverses the exaggeration of a male sexually selected trait, which increases female fitness
Kensuke Okada, Masako Katsuki, Manmohan D. Sharma, Katsuya Kiyose, Tomokazu Seko, Yasukazu Okada, Alastair J. Wilson, David J. Hosken
bioRxiv 2020.10.15.340562; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.15.340562

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