scholarly journals Sex-biased dispersal, kin selection and the evolution of sexual conflict

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 1901-1910 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonçalo S. Faria ◽  
Susana A. M. Varela ◽  
Andy Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Kin Selection

scholarly journals Does kin selection moderate sexual conflict in Drosophila ?

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1813) ◽  
pp. 20151417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam K. Chippindale ◽  
Meredith Berggren ◽  
Joshua H. M. Alpern ◽  
Robert Montgomerie
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Kin Recognition ◽  
Fruit Flies ◽  
Male Reproductive Success ◽  
Laboratory Populations ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Experimental Findings ◽  
Unrelated Male

Two recent studies provide provocative experimental findings about the potential influence of kin recognition and cooperation on the level of sexual conflict in Drosophila melanogaster . In both studies, male fruit flies apparently curbed their mate-harming behaviours in the presence of a few familiar or related males, suggesting some form of cooperation mediated by kin selection. In one study, the reduction in agonistic behaviour by brothers apparently rendered them vulnerable to dramatic loss of paternity share when competing with an unrelated male. If these results are robust and generalizable, fruit flies could be a major new focus for the experimental study of kin selection and social evolution. In our opinion, however, the restrictive conditions required for male cooperation to be adaptive in this species make it unlikely to evolve. We investigated these phenomena in two different populations of D. melanogaster using protocols very similar to those in the two previous studies. Our experiments show no evidence for a reduction in mate harm based upon either relatedness or familiarity between males, and no reduction in male reproductive success when two brothers are in the presence of an unfamiliar, unrelated, ‘foreign’ male. Thus, the reduction of sexual conflict owing to male cooperation does not appear to be a general feature of the species, at least under domestication, and these contrasting results call for further investigation: in new populations, in the field and in the laboratory populations in which these phenomena have been reported.

scholarly journals Kin selection and sexual conflict: male relatedness and familiarity do not affect female fitness in seed beetles

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena C. Berg ◽  
Martin I. Lind ◽  
Shannon Monahan ◽  
Sophie Bricout ◽  
Alexei A. Maklakov
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Callosobruchus Maculatus ◽  
Lifetime Reproductive Success ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Adaptive Mechanisms ◽  
Female Survival ◽  
Reproductive Part ◽  
Seed Beetles

SummaryTheory maintains that kin selection can mediate sexual conflict because within-group male relatedness should reduce male-male competition, thereby reducing collateral harm to females. We tested whether male relatedness and familiarity can lessen female harm in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. Neither male relatedness nor familiarity influenced female lifetime reproductive success or individual fitness. However, male relatedness, but not familiarity, marginally improved female survival. Because male relatedness improved female survival in late life when C. maculatus females are no longer producing offspring, our results do not provide support for the role of kin selection in mediating sexual conflict. The fact that male relatedness improves the post-reproductive part of female life cycle strongly suggests that the effect is non-adaptive. We discuss adaptive and non-adaptive mechanisms that could result in reduced female harm in this and previous studies and suggest that cognitive error is a likely explanation.

scholarly journals Family feuds: social competition and sexual conflict in complex societies

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1600) ◽  
pp. 2304-2313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dustin R. Rubenstein
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Sexual Partners ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Social Competition ◽  
Reproductive Conflict ◽  
Sexual Competition ◽  
Kin Structure ◽  
Animal Societies

Darwin was initially puzzled by the processes that led to ornamentation in males—what he termed sexual selection—and those that led to extreme cooperation and altruism in complex animal societies—what was later termed kin selection. Here, I explore the relationships between sexual and kin selection theory by examining how social competition for reproductive opportunities—particularly in females—and sexual conflict over mating partners are inherent and critical parts of complex altruistic societies. I argue that (i) patterns of reproductive sharing within complex societies can drive levels of social competition and reproductive conflict not only in males but also in females living in social groups, and ultimately the evolution of female traits such as ornaments and armaments; (ii) mating conflict over female choice of sexual partners can influence kin structure within groups and drive the evolution of complex societies; and (iii) patterns of reproductive sharing and conflict among females may also drive the evolution of complex societies by influencing kin structure within groups. Ultimately, complex societies exhibiting altruistic behaviour appear to have only arisen in taxa where social competition over reproductive opportunities and sexual conflict over mating partners were low. Once such societies evolved, there were important selective feedbacks on traits used to regulate and mediate intra-sexual competition over reproductive opportunities, particularly in females.

scholarly journals No evidence that relatedness or familiarity modulate male harm in wild Drosophila melanogaster

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Marquez-Rosado ◽  
Clara García-Có ◽  
Claudia Londoño-Nieto ◽  
Pau Carazo
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Kin Recognition ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Male Competition ◽  
Natural Conditions ◽  
Population Average ◽  
In The Wild

Sexual selection frequently promotes the evolution of aggressive behaviours that help males compete against their rivals, but which may harm females and hamper their fitness. Kin selection theory predicts that optimal male-male competition levels can be reduced when competitors are more genetically related to each other than to the population average, contributing to resolve this sexual conflict. Work in Drosophila melanogaster has spearheaded empirical tests of this idea, but studies so far have been conducted in lab-adapted populations in homogeneous rearing environments that may hamper kin recognition, and used highly skewed sex ratios that may fail to reflect average natural conditions. Here, we performed a fully factorial design with the aim of exploring how rearing environment (i.e. familiarity) and relatedness affect male-male aggression, male harassment, and overall male harm levels in a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster, under more natural conditions. Namely, we: a) manipulated relatedness and familiarity so that larvae reared apart were raised in different environments, as is common in the wild, and b) studied the effects of relatedness and familiarity under average levels of male-male competition in the field. We show that, contrary to previous findings, groups of unrelated-unfamiliar males were as likely to fight with each other and harass females than related-familiar males, and that overall levels of male harm to females were similar across treatments. Our results suggest that the role of kin selection in modulating sexual conflict is yet unclear in Drosophila melanogaster, and call for further studies that focus on natural populations and realistic socio-sexual and ecological environments.

scholarly journals Sex-biased demography modulates male harm across the genome

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1965) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Hitchcock ◽  
Andy Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Sex Chromosomes ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Overlapping Generations ◽  
Population Regulation ◽  
Reproductive Skew ◽  
Reproductive Value ◽  
Demographic Parameters ◽  
Local Competition ◽  
Sex Biases

Recent years have seen an explosion of theoretical and empirical interest in the role that kin selection plays in shaping patterns of sexual conflict, with a particular focus on male harming traits. However, this work has focused solely on autosomal genes, and as such it remains unclear how demography modulates the evolution of male harm loci occurring in other portions of the genome, such as sex chromosomes and cytoplasmic elements. To investigate this, we extend existing models of sexual conflict for application to these different modes of inheritance. We first analyse the general case, revealing how sex-specific relatedness, reproductive value and the intensity of local competition combine to determine the potential for male harm. We then analyse a series of demographically explicit models, to assess how dispersal, overlapping generations, reproductive skew and the mechanism of population regulation affect sexual conflict across the genome, and drive conflict between nuclear and cytoplasmic genes. We then explore the effects of sex biases in these demographic parameters, showing how they may drive further conflicts between autosomes and sex chromosomes. Finally, we outline how different crossing schemes may be used to identify signatures of these intragenomic conflicts.

scholarly journals Are flies kind to kin? The role of intra- and inter-sexual relatedness in mediating reproductive conflict

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1821) ◽  
pp. 20151991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily S. Martin ◽  
Tristan A. F. Long
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Cooperative Behaviour ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Individual Success

As individual success often comes at the expense of others, interactions between the members of a species are frequently antagonistic, especially in the context of reproduction. In theory, this conflict may be reduced in magnitude when kin interact, as cooperative behaviour between relatives can result in increased inclusive fitness. Recent tests of the potential role of cooperative behaviour between brothers in Drosophila melanogaster have proved to be both exciting and controversial. We set out to replicate these experiments, which have profound implications for the study of kin selection and sexual conflict, and to expand upon them by also examining the potential role of kinship between males and females in reproductive interactions. While we did observe reduced fighting and courtship effort between competing brothers, contrary to previous studies we did not detect any fitness benefit to females as a result of the modification of male antagonistic behaviours. Furthermore, we did not observe any differential treatment of females by their brothers, as would be expected if the intensity of sexual conflict was mediated by kin selection. In the light of these results, we propose an alternative explanation for observed differences in male–male conflict and provide preliminary empirical support for this hypothesis.

scholarly journals The kin structure of sexual interactions

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 689-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. F. G. Bourke
Keyword(s):  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Sexual Reproduction ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Sex Allocation ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Sexual Partners ◽  
Diploid Genome ◽  
Kin Structure

The origin of sexual reproduction involved the evolution of zygotes from separate genomes and, like other social processes, should therefore be amenable to analysis using kin selection theory. I consider how kin structure affects sexual interactions in three contexts—the evolution of sexual reproduction, sex allocation and sexual conflict. Kin structure helps explain the even-handed replication of paternal and maternal genes under outbreeding. Under inbreeding, it predicts altruistic failure to replicate by one half of the diploid genome. Kin structure predicts optimal sex ratios and potential conflicts over sex ratio within social groups and individuals. Sexual conflict predictably occurs as a function of (i) the probability that current sexual partners will reproduce together in future and (ii) between-partner relatedness. I conclude that systematically analysing the kin structure of sexual interactions helps illuminate their evolution.

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