Strong sexual selection in males against a mutation load that reduces offspring production in seed beetles.

摘要: Theory predicts that sexual reproduction can increase population viability relative to asexual by allowing selection in males remove deleterious mutations from the without large demographic costs. This requires acts more strongly than females and affecting male reproductive success have pleiotropic effects on productivity, but empirical support for these assumptions is mixed. We used seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus implement a three-generation breeding design where we induced via ionizing radiation (IR) F0 generation measured mutational (relative nonirradiated controls) an estimate of productivity F1 sex-specific competitive lifetime (LRS) F2 . Regardless whether were or females, they had strong negative LRS, nonsignificant influence female suggesting efficient removing alleles males. Moreover, seemingly shared LRS both sexes. Thus, our results lend hypothesis act mutation load viability, thereby offering benefit reproduction.