Abstract
Whether species exhibit significant heritable variation in fitness is central for sexual selection. According to good genes models there must be genetic variation in males leading to variation in offspring fitness if females are to obtain genetic benefits from exercising mate preferences, or by mating multiply. However, sexual selection based on genetic benefits is controversial, and there is limited unambiguous support for the notion that choosy or polyandrous females can increase the chances of producing offspring with high viability. Here we examine the levels of additive genetic variance in two fitness components in the dung beetle Onthophagus taurus. We found significant sire effects on egg-to-adult viability and on son, but not daughter, survival to sexual maturity, as well as moderate coefficients of additive variance in these traits. Moreover, we do not find evidence for sexual antagonism influencing genetic variation for fitness. Our results are consistent with good genes sexual selection, and suggest that both pre- and postcopulatory mate choice, and male competition could provide indirect benefits to females.
Highlights
A central tenet in sexual selection is the existence of heritable variation in fitness [1]
We have found significant sire effects on egg-to-adult viability and son’s pre-reproductive survival, as well as moderate to high coefficients of additive genetic variation for these traits, and for daughter’s pre-reproductive survival in O. taurus
Genetic benefits in O. taurus can arise by both precopulatory and postcopulatory sexual selection acting on traits that are genetically linked to condition
Summary
A central tenet in sexual selection is the existence of heritable variation in fitness [1]. We test whether there is significant additive genetic variation in two important components of fitness (egg-to-adult and adult viability) in the dung beetle Onthophagus taurus, an increasingly popular model species for the study of precopulatory and postcopulatory sexual selection [12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. Extensive research on this species converges on a picture of traditional sexual selection based on indirect benefits. We found significant levels of additive genetic variance in offspring fitness, supporting a picture of good genes sexual selection in this species
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