Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 26 June 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5935, pp. 1705 - 1706
DOI: 10.1126/science.1171675
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Postmating Sexual Selection Favors Males That Sire Offspring with Low Fitness

Trine Bilde,1,2,* Anne Foged,2 Nadia Schilling,2 Göran Arnqvist1

Despite the costs of mating, females of most taxa mate with multiple males. Polyandrous females are hypothesized to gain genetic benefits for their offspring, but this assumes paternity bias favoring male genotypes that enhance offspring viability. We determined net male genetic effects on female and offspring fitness in a seed beetle and then tested whether fertilization success was biased in favor of high-quality male genotypes in double mating experiments. Contrary to expectations, high-quality male genotypes consistently had a lower postmating fertilization success in two independent assays. Our results imply that sexually antagonistic adaptations have a major and unappreciated influence on male postmating fertilization success. Such genetic variation renders indirect genetic benefits an unlikely driver of the evolution of polyandry.

1 Department of Ecology and Evolution, Evolutionary Biology Centre, University of Uppsala, Norbyvägen 18d, SE - 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden.
2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Aarhus, Ny Munkegade 1540, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: trine.bilde{at}biology.au.dk

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Sexual conflict and the gender load: correlated evolution between population fitness and sexual dimorphism in seed beetles.
G. Arnqvist and M. Tuda (2009)
Proc R Soc B
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)