Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Animal Biology, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA, Australia.
J Evol Biol. 2010 Oct;23(10):2066-2075. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02065.x. Epub 2010 Aug 17.
Sexual conflict facilitates the evolution of traits that increase the reproductive success of males at the expense of components of female fitness. Theory suggests that indirect benefits are unlikely to offset the direct costs to females from antagonistic male adaptations, but empirical studies examining the net fitness pay-offs of the interaction between the sexes are scarce. Here, we investigate whether matings with males that invest intrinsically more into accessory gland tissue undermine female lifetime reproductive success (LRS) in the cricket Teleogryllus oceanicus. We found that females incur a longevity cost of mating that is proportional to the partner's absolute investment into the production of accessory gland products. However, male accessory gland weight positively influences embryo survival, and harmful ejaculate-induced effects are cancelled out when these are put in the context of female LRS. The direct costs of mating with males that sire offspring with higher viability are thus compensated by direct and possibly indirect genetic benefits in this species.
性冲突促进了那些以牺牲女性适应能力为代价，从而提高男性繁殖成功率的特征的进化。理论认为，间接利益不太可能抵消雄性适应带来的对雌性的直接成本，但很少有研究检验两性之间相互作用的净适合度收益。在这里，我们研究了与内在更多地投入附腺组织的雄性交配是否会损害蟋蟀 Teleogryllus oceanicus 的雌性终生繁殖成功率 (LRS)。我们发现，雌性在交配中会遭受与伴侣对附腺产物绝对投入成正比的寿命成本。然而，雄性附腺重量会对胚胎存活率产生积极影响，当将这些因素放在雌性 LRS 的背景下时，有害的精液诱导效应会被抵消。因此，与产生更高生存能力后代的雄性交配的直接成本，在这个物种中被直接的、可能是间接的遗传收益所补偿。
