Effects of Parthenogenesis and Geographic Isolation on Female Sexual Traits in a Parasitoid Wasp

Population divergence in sexual traits is affected by different selection pressures, depending on the mode of reproduction. In allopatric sexual populations, aspects of sexual behavior may diverge due to sexual selection. In parthenogenetic populations, loss-of-function mutations in genes involved i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolution 2009-12, Vol.63 (12), p.3085-3096
Main Authors: Kraaijeveld, Ken, Franco, Padu, Reumer, Barbara M, van Alphen, Jacques J. M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal reproduction
Animals
Antibiotics
Attractiveness
Bacteria
Biodiversity and Ecology
Chromatography, Gas
Entomology
Environmental Sciences
Experimentation
Female
Female animals
Genes
geographic isolation
Geography
Hymenoptera
Insects
Leptopilina
Leptopilina clavipes
Male
Male animals
Mating behavior
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Parasites
Parthenogenesis
Phenotypic traits
Sexual Behavior, Animal
sperm storage
Spermatozoa
thelytoky
Wasps - physiology
Wing fanning
Wolbachia
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Summary:Population divergence in sexual traits is affected by different selection pressures, depending on the mode of reproduction. In allopatric sexual populations, aspects of sexual behavior may diverge due to sexual selection. In parthenogenetic populations, loss-of-function mutations in genes involved in sexual functionality may be selectively neutral or favored by selection. We assess to what extent these processes have contributed to divergence in female sexual traits in the parasitoid wasp Leptopilina clavipes in which some populations are infected with parthenogenesis-inducing Wolbachia bacteria. We find evidence consistent with both hypotheses. Both arrhenotokous males and males derived from thelytokous strains preferred to court females from their own population. This suggests that these populations had already evolved population-specific mating preferences when the latter became parthenogenetic. Thelytokous females did not store sperm efficiently and fertilized very few of their eggs. The nonfertility of thelytokous females was due to mutations in the wasp genome, which must be an effect of mutation accumulation under thelytoky. Divergence in female sexual traits of these two allopatric populations has thus been molded by different forces: independent male/female coevolution while both populations were still sexual, followed by female-only evolution after one population switched to parthenogenesis.
ISSN:0014-3820
1558-5646
DOI:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00798.x