Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Mutations at condition influencing loci are expected to be maladaptive with respect to non-sexual fitness and also negatively affect mating success. Natural and sexual selection should thus act concordantly at these loci. Recent studies find male preferential harassment of high-condition females reduces their fitness relative to low-condition females. Thus, sexual selection appears to hinder natural selection. The ecologically simple environments of these studies exaggerate male harassment towards high-condition females. I tested the effects of environmental complexity in reducing the negative sexual conflict effects that might cause a misalignment of natural and sexual selection. Using Drosophila melanogaster, I quantified mating interactions in environments differing in complexity. I measured the purging rate of mutations from populations evolving in these environments. I found that environmental complexity modulates the rate at which mutations are purged and speculate on a causal mechanism that implicates a concordance of natural and sexual selection to explain these results.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Amardeep Singh
Language: English
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2438150809