Abstract
The evolution of a positive genetic correlation between male and female components of mate recognition systems will result as a consequence of assortative mating and, in particular, is central to a number of theories of sexual selection. Although the existence of such genetic correlations has been investigated in a number of taxa, it has yet to be shown that such correlations evolve and whether they may evolve as rapidly as suggested by sexual selection models. In this study, I used a hybridization experiment to disrupt natural mate recognition systems and then observed the subsequent evolutionary dynamics of the genetic correlation between male and female components for 56 generations in hybrids between Drosophila serrata and Drosophila birchii. The genetic correlation between male and female components evolved from 0.388 at generation 5 to 1.017 at generation 37 and then declined to -0.040 after a further 19 generations. These results indicated that the genetic basis of the mate recognition system in the hybrid populations evolved rapidly. The initial rapid increase in the genetic correlation was consistent with the classic assumption that male and female components will coevolve under sexual selection. The subsequent decline in genetic correlation may be attributable to the fixation of major genes, or, alternatively, may be a result of a cyclic evolutionary change in mate recognition.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (144.5 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Carson H. L., Val F. C., Templeton A. R. Change in male secondary sexual characters in artificial interspecific hybrid populations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1994 Jul 5;91(14):6315–6318. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.14.6315. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Coyne J. A., Charlesworth B. Genetics of a pheromonal difference affecting sexual isolation between Drosophila mauritiana and D. sechellia. Genetics. 1997 Apr;145(4):1015–1030. doi: 10.1093/genetics/145.4.1015. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Coyne J. A., Crittenden A. P., Mah K. Genetics of a pheromonal difference contributing to reproductive isolation in Drosophila. Science. 1994 Sep 2;265(5177):1461–1464. doi: 10.1126/science.8073292. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Dieckmann U., Doebeli M. On the origin of species by sympatric speciation. Nature. 1999 Jul 22;400(6742):354–357. doi: 10.1038/22521. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Grossman M., Gall G. A. Covariance analysis with unequal subclass numbers: component-estimation in quantitative genetics. Biometrics. 1968 Mar;24(1):49–59. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Iwasa Y., Pomiankowski A. Continual change in mate preferences. Nature. 1995 Oct 5;377(6548):420–422. doi: 10.1038/377420a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Jallon J. M. A few chemical words exchanged by Drosophila during courtship and mating. Behav Genet. 1984 Sep;14(5):441–478. doi: 10.1007/BF01065444. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kirkpatrick M., Barton N. H. The strength of indirect selection on female mating preferences. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1997 Feb 18;94(4):1282–1286. doi: 10.1073/pnas.94.4.1282. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kondrashov A. S., Kondrashov F. A. Interactions among quantitative traits in the course of sympatric speciation. Nature. 1999 Jul 22;400(6742):351–354. doi: 10.1038/22514. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lande R. Models of speciation by sexual selection on polygenic traits. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Jun;78(6):3721–3725. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.6.3721. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lande R. The genetic correlation between characters maintained by selection, linkage and inbreeding. Genet Res. 1984 Dec;44(3):309–320. doi: 10.1017/s0016672300026549. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]