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Stronger net selection on males across animals

Sexual selection is considered the major driver for the evolution of sex differences. However, the eco-evolutionary dynamics of sexual selection and their role for a population’s adaptive potential to respond to environmental change have only recently been explored. Theory predicts that sexual selec...

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Autores principales: Winkler, Lennart, Moiron, Maria, Morrow, Edward H, Janicke, Tim
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8598160/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34787569
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.68316
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author Winkler, Lennart
Moiron, Maria
Morrow, Edward H
Janicke, Tim
author_facet Winkler, Lennart
Moiron, Maria
Morrow, Edward H
Janicke, Tim
author_sort Winkler, Lennart
collection PubMed
description Sexual selection is considered the major driver for the evolution of sex differences. However, the eco-evolutionary dynamics of sexual selection and their role for a population’s adaptive potential to respond to environmental change have only recently been explored. Theory predicts that sexual selection promotes adaptation at a low demographic cost only if sexual selection is aligned with natural selection and if net selection is stronger on males compared to females. We used a comparative approach to show that net selection is indeed stronger in males and provide preliminary support that this sex bias is associated with sexual selection. Given that both sexes share the vast majority of their genes, our findings corroborate the notion that the genome is often confronted with a more stressful environment when expressed in males. Collectively, our study supports one of the long-standing key assumptions required for sexual selection to bolster adaptation, and sexual selection may therefore enable some species to track environmental change more efficiently.
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spelling pubmed-85981602021-11-19 Stronger net selection on males across animals Winkler, Lennart Moiron, Maria Morrow, Edward H Janicke, Tim eLife Evolutionary Biology Sexual selection is considered the major driver for the evolution of sex differences. However, the eco-evolutionary dynamics of sexual selection and their role for a population’s adaptive potential to respond to environmental change have only recently been explored. Theory predicts that sexual selection promotes adaptation at a low demographic cost only if sexual selection is aligned with natural selection and if net selection is stronger on males compared to females. We used a comparative approach to show that net selection is indeed stronger in males and provide preliminary support that this sex bias is associated with sexual selection. Given that both sexes share the vast majority of their genes, our findings corroborate the notion that the genome is often confronted with a more stressful environment when expressed in males. Collectively, our study supports one of the long-standing key assumptions required for sexual selection to bolster adaptation, and sexual selection may therefore enable some species to track environmental change more efficiently. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2021-11-17 /pmc/articles/PMC8598160/ /pubmed/34787569 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.68316 Text en © 2021, Winkler et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Evolutionary Biology
Winkler, Lennart
Moiron, Maria
Morrow, Edward H
Janicke, Tim
Stronger net selection on males across animals
title Stronger net selection on males across animals
title_full Stronger net selection on males across animals
title_fullStr Stronger net selection on males across animals
title_full_unstemmed Stronger net selection on males across animals
title_short Stronger net selection on males across animals
title_sort stronger net selection on males across animals
topic Evolutionary Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8598160/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34787569
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.68316
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AT moironmaria strongernetselectiononmalesacrossanimals
AT morrowedwardh strongernetselectiononmalesacrossanimals
AT janicketim strongernetselectiononmalesacrossanimals