Abstract
The shape of the male genitalia in many taxa is the most rapidly evolving morphological structure, often driving reproductive isolation, and is therefore widely used in systematics as a key character to distinguish between sibling species. However, only a few studies have used the genital arch of the male copulatory organ as a model to study the genetic basis of species-specific differences in the Drosophila copulatory system. Moreover, almost nothing is known about the effects of the sex chromosomes on the shape of the male mating organ. In our study, we used a set of crosses between D. virilis and D. lummei and applied the methods of quantitative genetics to assess the variability of the shape of the male copulatory organ and the effects of the sex chromosomes and autosomes on its variance. Our results showed that the male genital shape depends on the species composition of the sex chromosomes and autosomes. Epistatic interactions of the sex chromosomes with autosomes and the species origin of the Y-chromosome in a male in interspecific crosses also influenced the expression of species-specific traits in the shape of the male copulatory system. Overall, the effects of sex chromosomes were comparable to the effects of autosomes despite the great differences in gene numbers between them. It may be reasonably considered that sexual selection for specific genes associated with the shape of the male mating organ prevents the demasculinization of the X chromosome.
Highlights
Reproductive isolation contributes to the evolutionary process by allowing diverging species to accumulate genetic variation independently, including for adaptively important traits
All types of genetic interactions between the chromosomes were revealed in our study, and most of the shape traits of the male copulatory organ demonstrated the dominance of the D. virilis type
The effects of sex chromosomes on the shape of the male mating organ is comparable with the effect of autosomes, even though the effect sizes of the former were inferior to the latter
Summary
Reproductive isolation contributes to the evolutionary process by allowing diverging species to accumulate genetic variation independently, including for adaptively important traits. Isolation is ensured by pre- and postzygotic isolating mechanisms, which differ in evolutionary origin and physiological basis. Postzygotic isolation arises as independent genetic variations. Sex chromosomes and the copulatory organ shape in Drosophila
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