1 Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology, Graduate School of Environmental Science, Okayama University , Tsushima-naka 111, Okayama 700-8530 , Japan.
2 Department of Biological Sciences, School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University , 1-1, Minamiohsawa Hachiohji, Tokyo, 192-0397 , Japan.
Proc Biol Sci. 2019 May 29;286(1903):20190582. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0582.
Winning or losing contests can impact subsequent competitive behaviour and the duration of these effects can be prolonged. While it is clear effects depend on social and developmental environments, the extent to which they are heritable, and hence evolvable, is less clear and remains untested. Furthermore, theory predicts that winner and loser effects should evolve independently of actual fighting ability, but again tests of this prediction are limited. Here we used artificial selection on replicated beetle populations to show that the duration of loser effects can evolve, with a realized heritability of about 17%. We also find that naive fighting ability does not co-evolve with reductions in the duration of the loser effect. We discuss the implications of these findings and how they corroborate theoretical predictions.
赢得或输掉比赛会影响后续的竞争行为，而这些影响的持续时间可能会延长。虽然很明显这些影响取决于社会和发展环境，但它们在多大程度上是可遗传的，因此是可以进化的，这一点还不太清楚，也没有经过测试。此外，理论预测，胜利者和失败者的影响应该独立于实际的战斗能力而进化，但对这一预测的测试仍然有限。在这里，我们使用人工选择对重复的甲虫种群进行了研究，结果表明，失败者效应的持续时间可以进化，实际的遗传率约为 17%。我们还发现，在失败者效应持续时间缩短的情况下，幼稚的战斗能力并没有共同进化。我们讨论了这些发现的意义以及它们如何证实理论预测。
