Abstract
Adaptation to ecologically contrasting niches can lead to the formation of new species. Theoretically, this process of ecological speciation can be driven by pleiotropic "magic traits" that genetically link natural and sexual selection. To qualify as a true magic trait, the pleiotropic function of a gene must be reflected in biologically relevant mechanisms underlying both local adaptation and mate choice. The immune genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) contribute to parasite resistance and also play a major role in sexual selection. Hence, the MHC may encode a candidate magic trait. Using diverging 3-spined stickleback populations from a connected lake-river habitat, we show with mate choice experiments in a flow channel that polymorphic MHC genes probably underlie assortative mating with respect to particular habitat-adapted ecotypes, potentially resulting in reproductive isolation. By manipulating olfactory cues in controlled experiments, we show that female sticklebacks employ MHC-dependent male olfactory signals to select mates with which they can achieve a habitat-specific MHC gene structure that optimally protects their offspring against local parasites. By using MHC-based olfactory signals, females thus select individuals of their own population as mates. Our results demonstrate how mate choice and parasite resistance may be functionally linked. These findings suggest that MHC genes are pleiotropic and encode a true magic trait of biologically significant effect.
Highlights
Ecological speciation results from the evolution of reproductive isolation as a result of adaptation to divergent ecological niches (Schluter and Conte 2009)
If there would be a preference for the “same habitat” male, the habitat cannot have been detected from the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) signal but from something else, e.g. the validation factor
We found that both lake and river females significantly preferred water from males only when it was supplemented with synthetic MHC peptides (Paired t-test, lake: df = 14, P = 0.034; river: df = 12, P = 0.003, Figure 2)
Summary
Ecological speciation results from the evolution of reproductive isolation as a result of adaptation to divergent ecological niches (Schluter and Conte 2009). In order for local adaptation to be maintained across sexual reproduction events (i.e. recombination), the mate choice mechanism must preserve the Adaptive divergence is one of the main pillars of ecological speciation (Coyne and Orr 2004). This process is facilitated if selection acts on so-called “magic traits” which ensure that an association between divergent selection and non-random mating cannot be broken by genetic recombination (Gavrilets 2004; Thibert-Plante and Gavrilets 2013). To qualify as a true magic trait, the pleiotropic function of a gene must be reflected in biologically relevant mechanisms underlying both local adaptation and mate choice (Haller et al 2012; Servedio et al 2011)
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