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Intersexual conflict over seed size is stronger in more outcrossed populations of a mixed-mating plant

Raunsgard, Astrid ; Opedal, Øystein H. LU ; Ekrem, Runa K. ; Wright, Jonathan ; Bolstad, Geir H. ; Armbruster, W. Scott and Pélabon, Christophe (2018) In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115(45). p.11561-11566
Abstract

In polyandrous species, fathers benefit from attracting greater maternal investment toward their offspring at the expense of the offspring of other males, while mothers should usually allocate resources equally among offspring. This conflict can lead to an evolutionary arms race between the sexes, manifested through antagonistic genes whose expression in offspring depends upon the parent of origin. The arms race may involve an increase in the strength of maternally versus paternally derived alleles engaged in a "tug of war" over maternal provisioning or repeated "recognition-avoidance" coevolution where growth-enhancing paternally derived alleles evolve to escape recognition by maternal genes targeted to suppress their effect. Here, we... (More)

In polyandrous species, fathers benefit from attracting greater maternal investment toward their offspring at the expense of the offspring of other males, while mothers should usually allocate resources equally among offspring. This conflict can lead to an evolutionary arms race between the sexes, manifested through antagonistic genes whose expression in offspring depends upon the parent of origin. The arms race may involve an increase in the strength of maternally versus paternally derived alleles engaged in a "tug of war" over maternal provisioning or repeated "recognition-avoidance" coevolution where growth-enhancing paternally derived alleles evolve to escape recognition by maternal genes targeted to suppress their effect. Here, we develop predictions to distinguish between these two mechanisms when considering crosses among populations that have reached different equilibria in this intersexual arms race. We test these predictions using crosses within and among populations of Dalechampia scandens (Euphorbiaceae) that presumably have experienced different intensities of intersexual conflict, as inferred from their historical differences in mating system. In crosses where the paternal population was more outcrossed than the maternal population, hybrid seeds were larger than those normally produced in the maternal population, whereas when the maternal population was more outcrossed, hybrid seeds were smaller than normal. These results confirm the importance of mating systems in determining the intensity of intersexual conflict over maternal investment and provide strong support for a tug-of-war mechanism operating in this conflict. They also yield clear predictions for the fitness consequences of gene flow among populations with different mating histories.

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author
; ; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
keywords
Dalechampia, Interlocus contest evolution, Kinship genomic imprinting, Parent-offspring conflict, Sexual conflict
in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
volume
115
issue
45
pages
11561 - 11566
publisher
National Academy of Sciences
external identifiers
  • scopus:85055494022
  • pmid:30282740
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1810979115
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
52532b6c-ec54-4b75-b981-271129f80852
date added to LUP
2020-02-04 08:41:29
date last changed
2024-07-11 13:16:56
@article{52532b6c-ec54-4b75-b981-271129f80852,
  abstract     = {{<p>In polyandrous species, fathers benefit from attracting greater maternal investment toward their offspring at the expense of the offspring of other males, while mothers should usually allocate resources equally among offspring. This conflict can lead to an evolutionary arms race between the sexes, manifested through antagonistic genes whose expression in offspring depends upon the parent of origin. The arms race may involve an increase in the strength of maternally versus paternally derived alleles engaged in a "tug of war" over maternal provisioning or repeated "recognition-avoidance" coevolution where growth-enhancing paternally derived alleles evolve to escape recognition by maternal genes targeted to suppress their effect. Here, we develop predictions to distinguish between these two mechanisms when considering crosses among populations that have reached different equilibria in this intersexual arms race. We test these predictions using crosses within and among populations of Dalechampia scandens (Euphorbiaceae) that presumably have experienced different intensities of intersexual conflict, as inferred from their historical differences in mating system. In crosses where the paternal population was more outcrossed than the maternal population, hybrid seeds were larger than those normally produced in the maternal population, whereas when the maternal population was more outcrossed, hybrid seeds were smaller than normal. These results confirm the importance of mating systems in determining the intensity of intersexual conflict over maternal investment and provide strong support for a tug-of-war mechanism operating in this conflict. They also yield clear predictions for the fitness consequences of gene flow among populations with different mating histories.</p>}},
  author       = {{Raunsgard, Astrid and Opedal, Øystein H. and Ekrem, Runa K. and Wright, Jonathan and Bolstad, Geir H. and Armbruster, W. Scott and Pélabon, Christophe}},
  issn         = {{0027-8424}},
  keywords     = {{Dalechampia; Interlocus contest evolution; Kinship genomic imprinting; Parent-offspring conflict; Sexual conflict}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{11}},
  number       = {{45}},
  pages        = {{11561--11566}},
  publisher    = {{National Academy of Sciences}},
  series       = {{Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}},
  title        = {{Intersexual conflict over seed size is stronger in more outcrossed populations of a mixed-mating plant}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1810979115}},
  doi          = {{10.1073/pnas.1810979115}},
  volume       = {{115}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}