Sexual conflict and correlated evolution between male persistence and female resistance traits in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus

Dougherty, Liam R ORCID: 0000-0003-1406-0680, van Lieshout, Emile, McNamara, Kathryn B, Moschilla, Joe A, Arnqvist, Goran and Simmons, Leigh W (2017) Sexual conflict and correlated evolution between male persistence and female resistance traits in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284 (1855). 20170132-.

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Abstract

Traumatic mating (or copulatory wounding) is an extreme form of sexual conflict whereby male genitalia physically harm females during mating. In such species females are expected to evolve counter-adaptations to reduce male-induced harm. Importantly, female counter-adaptations may include both genital and non-genital traits. In this study, we examine evolutionary associations between harmful male genital morphology and female reproductive tract morphology and immune function across 13 populations of the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. We detected positive correlated evolution between the injuriousness of male genitalia and putative female resistance adaptations across populations. Moreover, we found evidence for a negative relationship between female immunity and population productivity, which suggests that investment in female resistance may be costly due to the resource trade-offs that are predicted between immunity and reproduction. Finally, the degree of female tract scarring (harm to females) was greater in those populations with both longer aedeagal spines and a thinner female tract lining. Our results are thus consistent with a sexual arms race, which is only apparent when both male and female traits are taken into account. Importantly, our study provides rare evidence for sexually antagonistic coevolution of male and female traits at the within-species level.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Callosobruchus, genital coevolution, insect immunity, X-Ray micro-CT, sexual conflict, traumatic mating
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	25 Jul 2023 11:09
Last Modified:	25 Jul 2023 11:09
DOI:	10.1098/rspb.2017.0132
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3171828