Centre for Ecology & Conservation, Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy (ESE), University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus , Penryn TR10 9EZ, UK.
Department of Zoology and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia , Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Proc Biol Sci. 2024 Jul;291(2027):20240438. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0438. Epub 2024 Jul 31.
Anisogamy, different-sized male and female gametes, sits at the heart of sexual selection and conflict between the sexes. Sperm producers (males) and egg producers (females) of the same species generally share most, if not all, of the same genome, but selection frequently favours different trait values in each sex for traits common to both. The extent to which this conflict might be resolved, and the potential mechanisms by which this can occur, have been widely debated. Here, we summarize recent findings and emphasize that once the sexes evolve, sexual selection is ongoing, and therefore new conflict is always possible. In addition, sexual conflict is largely a multivariate problem, involving trait combinations underpinned by networks of interconnected genes. Although these complexities can hinder conflict resolution, they also provide multiple possible routes to decouple male and female phenotypes and permit sex-specific evolution. Finally, we highlight difficulty in the study of sexual conflict over shared traits and promising directions for future research.
雌雄配子大小不同的雌雄异体现象处于性选择和性别冲突的核心。同一物种的精子生产者（雄性）和卵子生产者（雌性）通常共享大部分（如果不是全部）相同的基因组，但选择经常有利于两性中常见特征的不同特征值。这种冲突可能在多大程度上得到解决，以及可能发生这种情况的潜在机制，一直是广泛争论的话题。在这里，我们总结了最近的发现，并强调一旦性别进化，性选择就会持续进行，因此新的冲突总是有可能发生的。此外，性冲突在很大程度上是一个多变量问题，涉及由相互关联的基因网络支撑的特征组合。尽管这些复杂性可能会阻碍冲突的解决，但它们也为分离雄性和雌性表型并允许性别特异性进化提供了多种可能的途径。最后，我们强调了在研究共享特征的性冲突方面的困难，并为未来的研究提供了有希望的方向。
