Covariance among premating, post-copulatory and viability fitness components in Drosophila melanogaster and their influence on paternity measurement

E. M. Droge-Young, M. K. Manier, S. Lüpold, J. M. Belote, S. Pitnick

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

In polyandrous mating systems, male fitness depends on success in premating, post-copulatory and offspring viability episodes of selection. We tracked male success across all of these episodes simultaneously, using transgenic Drosophila melanogaster with ubiquitously expressed green fluorescent protein (i.e. GFP) in a series of competitive and noncompetitive matings. This approach permitted us to track paternity-specific viability over all life stages and to distinguish true competitive fertilization success from differential early offspring viability. Relationships between episodes of selection were generally not present when paternity was measured in eggs; however, positive correlations between sperm competitive success and offspring viability became significant when paternity was measured in adult offspring. Additionally, we found a significant male × female interaction on hatching success and a lack of repeatability of offspring viability across a focal male's matings, which may underlay the limited number of correlations found between episodes of selection.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1555-1563
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Evolutionary Biology
Volume25
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2012

Keywords

  • Post-copulatory sexual selection
  • Reproductive traits
  • Sexual selection
  • Sperm competition
  • Viability selection.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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