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Meiotic drive adaptive testes enlargement during early development in the stalk-eyed fly

The sex ratio (SR) X-linked meiotic drive system in stalk-eyed flies destroys Y-bearing sperm. Unlike other SR systems, drive males do not suffer fertility loss. They have greatly enlarged testes which compensate for gamete killing. We predicted that enlarged testes arise from extended development w...

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Autores principales: Bradshaw, Sasha L., Meade, Lara, Tarlton-Weatherall, Jessica, Pomiankowski, Andrew
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9709577/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36448294
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0352
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author Bradshaw, Sasha L.
Meade, Lara
Tarlton-Weatherall, Jessica
Pomiankowski, Andrew
author_facet Bradshaw, Sasha L.
Meade, Lara
Tarlton-Weatherall, Jessica
Pomiankowski, Andrew
author_sort Bradshaw, Sasha L.
collection PubMed
description The sex ratio (SR) X-linked meiotic drive system in stalk-eyed flies destroys Y-bearing sperm. Unlike other SR systems, drive males do not suffer fertility loss. They have greatly enlarged testes which compensate for gamete killing. We predicted that enlarged testes arise from extended development with resources re-allocated from the accessory glands, as these tend to be smaller in drive males. To test this, we tracked the growth of the testes and accessory glands of wild-type and drive males over 5–6 weeks post-eclosion before males attained sexual maturity. Neither of the original predictions is supported by these data. Instead, we found that the drive male testes were enlarged at eclosion, reflecting a greater allocation of resources to the testes during pupation. Testes grow at a higher rate during early adult development in drive males, but there was no evidence that this retards the growth of the accessory glands. Further experiments are proposed to investigate whether smaller accessory glands only arise in drive males post-copulation or when flies are subjected to nutritional stress. Our experimental findings support the idea that enlarged testes in drive males arise as an adaptive allocation of resources to traits that enhance male reproductive success.
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spelling pubmed-97095772022-12-02 Meiotic drive adaptive testes enlargement during early development in the stalk-eyed fly Bradshaw, Sasha L. Meade, Lara Tarlton-Weatherall, Jessica Pomiankowski, Andrew Biol Lett Evolutionary Biology The sex ratio (SR) X-linked meiotic drive system in stalk-eyed flies destroys Y-bearing sperm. Unlike other SR systems, drive males do not suffer fertility loss. They have greatly enlarged testes which compensate for gamete killing. We predicted that enlarged testes arise from extended development with resources re-allocated from the accessory glands, as these tend to be smaller in drive males. To test this, we tracked the growth of the testes and accessory glands of wild-type and drive males over 5–6 weeks post-eclosion before males attained sexual maturity. Neither of the original predictions is supported by these data. Instead, we found that the drive male testes were enlarged at eclosion, reflecting a greater allocation of resources to the testes during pupation. Testes grow at a higher rate during early adult development in drive males, but there was no evidence that this retards the growth of the accessory glands. Further experiments are proposed to investigate whether smaller accessory glands only arise in drive males post-copulation or when flies are subjected to nutritional stress. Our experimental findings support the idea that enlarged testes in drive males arise as an adaptive allocation of resources to traits that enhance male reproductive success. The Royal Society 2022-11-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9709577/ /pubmed/36448294 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0352 Text en © 2022 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Evolutionary Biology
Bradshaw, Sasha L.
Meade, Lara
Tarlton-Weatherall, Jessica
Pomiankowski, Andrew
Meiotic drive adaptive testes enlargement during early development in the stalk-eyed fly
title Meiotic drive adaptive testes enlargement during early development in the stalk-eyed fly
title_full Meiotic drive adaptive testes enlargement during early development in the stalk-eyed fly
title_fullStr Meiotic drive adaptive testes enlargement during early development in the stalk-eyed fly
title_full_unstemmed Meiotic drive adaptive testes enlargement during early development in the stalk-eyed fly
title_short Meiotic drive adaptive testes enlargement during early development in the stalk-eyed fly
title_sort meiotic drive adaptive testes enlargement during early development in the stalk-eyed fly
topic Evolutionary Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9709577/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36448294
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0352
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