The effect of mating on starvation resistance in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster

GOENAGA JULIETA; MENSCH JULIÁN; FANARA JUAN JOSÉ; HASSON ESTEBAN

EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2012 vol. 26 p. 813 - 823

0269-7653

In nature, behavioural and physiological processes involved in mating may entaildifferent costs and benefits for males and females. However, it has been hypothesized thatsexual interactions may have additional costs for Drosophila females like decrease inreceptivity to remating and shortening of lifespan. During mating, males transfer seminalfluid proteins to females that exert severe physiological changes that may compromisefemale?s lifespan and reproductive success. However, under specific stressful environmentalconditions that organisms usually face in nature, mating may also confer benefits to females.In the present work, we examine the effect of mating on starvation resistance in wild Drosophila melanogaster.We demonstrate thatmated females derived fromdifferent geographiclocations have the benefit of a greater starvation resistance as compared to virgin females.Even though mating status did not affect mean starvation resistance, we detected a stronggenotype-specific effect inmales. Beyond the obvious advantage of mating, our study revealsthat mating might not be perilous for females, as envisaged by sexual conflict theories, butadvantageous for flies exposed to shifts in environmental conditions. Thus, our resultshighlight the importance of studying other ecologically relevant traits that may contribute tothe evolution of male?female interactions.