scholarly journals Feminization of complex traits in Drosophila melanogaster via female‐limited X chromosome evolution*

Evolution ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (12) ◽  
pp. 2703-2713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrine K. Lund‐Hansen ◽  
Jessica K. Abbott ◽  
Edward H. Morrow
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
X Chromosome ◽  
Complex Traits ◽  
Chromosome Evolution ◽  
X Chromosome Evolution

scholarly journals Feminisation of complex traits in Drosophila melanogaster via female-limited X chromosome evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrine K. Lund-Hansen ◽  
Jessica K. Abbott ◽  
Edward H. Morrow
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Body Size ◽  
X Chromosome ◽  
Complex Traits ◽  
Development Time ◽  
Chromosome Evolution ◽  
Reproductive Fitness ◽  
Male Genome ◽  
X Chromosome Evolution ◽  
Locomotion Activity

AbstractA handful of studies have investigated sexually antagonistic constraints on obtaining sex-specific fitness optima, though exclusively through male-genome-limited evolution experiments. In this paper, we established a female-limited X chromosome evolution experiment, where we used an X chromosome balancer to enforce the inheritance of the X chromosome through the matriline, thus removing exposure to male selective constraints. This approach eliminates the effects of sexually antagonistic selection on the X chromosome, permitting evolution towards a single sex-specific optimum. After multiple generations of selection, we found strong evidence that body size and development time had moved towards a female-specific optimum, whereas reproductive fitness and locomotion activity remained unchanged. The changes in body size and development time are consistent with previous results, and suggest that the X chromosome is enriched for sexually antagonistic genetic variation controlling these traits. The lack of change in reproductive fitness and locomotion activity could be due to a number of mutually non-exclusive explanations, including a lack of sexually antagonistic variance on the X chromosome or confounding effects of the use of the balancer chromosome. This study is the first to employ female-genome-limited selection and adds to the understanding of the complexity of sexually antagonistic genetic variation.

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