Science and Engineering Research Support Facility, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK.
College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK.
Nat Commun. 2018 Nov 28;9(1):5048. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07541-y.
At any given age, men are more likely to die than women, but women have poorer health at older ages. This is referred to as the "male-female, health-survival paradox", which is not fully understood. Here, we provide a general solution to the paradox that relies on intralocus sexual conflict, where alleles segregating in the population have late-acting positive effects on male fitness, but negative effects on female health. Using an evolutionary modelling framework, we show that male-benefit, female-detriment alleles can spread if they are expressed after female reproduction stops. We provide support for our conflict based solution using experimental Drosophila data. Our results show that selecting for increased late-life male reproductive effort can increase male fitness but have a detrimental effect on female fitness. Furthermore, we show that late-life male fertility is negatively genetically correlated with female health. Our study suggests that intralocus sexual conflict could resolve the health-survival paradox.
在任何特定年龄段，男性的死亡率都高于女性，但女性在老年时的健康状况较差。这被称为“男女健康生存悖论”，目前尚未完全理解。在这里，我们提供了一个普遍的解决方案，依赖于基因内的性冲突，即群体中分离的等位基因对男性的适应性有晚期的积极影响，但对女性的健康有负面影响。我们使用进化建模框架表明，如果男性有利、女性受损的等位基因在女性生殖停止后表达，它们就可以传播。我们使用实验性果蝇数据为我们的冲突解决方案提供了支持。我们的结果表明，选择增加老年雄性生殖投入可以增加雄性适应性，但对雌性适应性有不利影响。此外，我们还表明，老年雄性生育力与雌性健康呈负遗传相关。我们的研究表明，基因内的性冲突可能解决健康生存悖论。
