Hardling Roger, Bergsten Johannes
Department of Animal Ecology, Lund University, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden.
Am Nat. 2006 Mar;167(3):401-9. doi: 10.1086/498946. Epub 2006 Jan 9.
Evolutionary conflict between the sexes is predicted to lead to sexual arms races in which male adaptations for acquiring mates ("offense" traits) are met by female counteradaptations--for example, to reduce mating rate ("defense" traits). Such coevolutionary chases may be perpetual. However, we show here that the coevolutionary process may also lead to a stable state in which multiple offense-defense trait pairs are maintained. This type of polymorphism below the species level is a result of sexual conflict in combination with nonrandom mating. Our results show that if nonrandom mating occurs with respect to male and female conflict traits, genetic correlations will act to stabilize the trait frequencies so that all morphs are maintained. We discuss the results in special relation to the evolution of female polymorphism in diving beetles and argue that the process we describe may be a general force that maintains polymorphism in other taxa as well.
两性之间的进化冲突预计会导致性军备竞赛，在这种竞赛中，雄性获取配偶的适应性特征（“进攻”特征）会遭遇雌性的反适应性特征——例如，降低交配率（“防御”特征）。这种协同进化的追逐可能会持续不断。然而，我们在此表明，协同进化过程也可能导致一种稳定状态，即多个进攻 - 防御特征对得以维持。这种物种水平以下的多态性是性冲突与非随机交配相结合的结果。我们的结果表明，如果关于雄性和雌性冲突特征发生非随机交配，遗传相关性将起到稳定特征频率的作用，从而使所有形态得以维持。我们特别结合潜水甲虫雌性多态性的进化来讨论这些结果，并认为我们所描述的过程可能也是维持其他分类群多态性的一股普遍力量。
