Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Animal Biology (M092), The University of Western Australia, Crawley, 6009, Australia.
Evolution. 2014 Jan;68(1):295-300. doi: 10.1111/evo.12238. Epub 2013 Sep 6.
Sexual selection is argued to be important for the removal of deleterious mutations, promoting population fitness, accelerating adaptation, and compensating for the two-fold cost of sex. Here we induced mutations in the dung beetle Onthophagus taurus using ionizing radiation, and tested the efficacy of sexual selection in their removal. Mutations reduced male precopulatory (strength) and postcopulatory (testes mass) sexual traits. Two generations of sexual selection were sufficient to remove mutations that affected male strength, but not testes mass. Induced mutations did not affect female productivity, which was elevated by sexual selection. Our results provide empirical support for the hypothesis that condition-dependent traits offer a large target for mutational variation, and that sexual selection can purge the genome of deleterious mutations and promote population fitness.
性选择被认为对于消除有害突变、促进种群适应和补偿性别的两倍成本是很重要的。在这里，我们使用电离辐射诱导粪金龟 Onthophagus taurus 的突变，并测试性选择在消除这些突变中的效果。突变降低了雄性的前交配（力量）和后交配（睾丸质量）的性特征。经过两代的性选择，足以消除影响雄性力量的突变，但不能消除影响睾丸质量的突变。诱导的突变不会影响雌性的生产力，而性选择会提高雌性的生产力。我们的结果为这样一种假设提供了经验支持，即条件依赖性状为突变提供了一个大的目标，并且性选择可以清除基因组中的有害突变并促进种群适应。
