Heroic heirs: evidence for sexy and competitive sons
Data files
May 07, 2025 version files 171.26 KB
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Egg-to-adult_viability.csv
48.46 KB
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Male_attractiveness.csv
46.47 KB
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Male-male_competitive_ability.csv
49.50 KB
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README.md
3.98 KB
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Wing_length.csv
22.85 KB
Abstract
Leks are the quintessential example of female mate choice, yet male-male interactions at leks may predominate. How, and how much, female mate choice versus male-male competition contribute to precopulatory sexual selection, including whether they are aligned or antagonistic, matters to theory and our understanding of how selection acts on both males and females. For example, if male-male competition predominates and selection favours harmful, dominant males, then female and population fitness may be compromised. Here, using Drosophila melanogaster, we performed two artificial selection experiments in parallel where we altered selection to favour male-male competition (selection for winners and losers in multi-male competition trials) or female mate choice (selection for winners and losers in single-male latency trials). After seven generations of selection, males from winner-selected lines had higher mating success than males from loser-selected lines in both competitive and non-competitive arenas. Our results support the idea that the outcomes of male-male competition and female choice are aligned or that one process dominates the other.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.f1vhhmh6v
Description of the data and file structure
Data for: Heroic heirs: evidence for sexy and competitive sons
Authors: Nirjana Dewan, W. Jason Kennington, Joseph L. Tomkins, Robert J. Dugand
NOTE: Variables present in more than one sheet are marked with an asterisk(*)
NOTE: The different combinations of the variables ‘context’ and ‘quality’ make up the treatment variable, of which there are 4 categories; ‘competitive’ (context - MMC present, quality - winner), ‘non-competitive’ (context - MMC present, quality - loser), ‘attractive’ (context - MMC absent, quality - winner) and ‘unattractive’ (context - MMC absent, quality - loser). The variable ‘treatment’ itself is not present in the csv files but has been used to define other variables, for e.g., line.
Files and variables
File: Egg_to_adult_viability.csv
Description: csv file containing fixed/random variables used to analyse egg-to-adult viability and mating success of inbred/outbred crosses.
Variables
- block* (categorical): block ID.
- context* (categorical): whether male-male competition was present in the selection environment; MMC present = male-male competition present, MMC absent = male-male competitionn absent.
- quality* (categorical): whether selection lines were success-selected or failure-selected; winners = success-selected, losers = failure-selected.
- line* (categorical): refers to the the selection line (treatment nested witin block).
- vial (categorical): identification for replicates (nested within line).
- male_family (categorical): the family which the experimental male was sourced from.
- cross (categorical): whether the family was inbred or outbred.
- mate (categorical): whether mating was observed; 0 = no mating, 1 = mating occurred.
- eggs (numerical): number of eggs counted.
- adults (numerical): number of adults counted.
- dead (numerical): the number of eggs which failed to develop into adults (number of eggs - number of adults).
File: Male_attractiveness.csv
Description: a csv file containing fixed/random variables used to analyse male attractiveness.
Variables
- F_vial (categorical): identification of vials that housed non-virgin females.
- mated_not (categorical): males were scored 1 (successful) or 0 (unsuccessful) at the 0.33 quantile in each block (i.e., males were scored as 1 if they were in the top 0.33 for their block, and 0 if outside the top 0.33).
- mate33 (continuous): block-mean standardised data of the mating latency in seconds, based on ‘males_not’ data. Males that were scored 1 (top 0.33 of their respective block) retained the actual mating latency time (in seconds) and these values were then block- mean standardised (by diving mating latency of each succesful male by mean mating time of all successful males within each block). Males that were scored 0 were assigned mating latency time of 18000 seconds (the maximum duration of mating trial).
File: Male-male_competitive_ability.csv
Description: a csv file containing fixed/random variables used to analyse male-male competitive ability.
Variables
- male_vial (categorical): identification of vials which housed selected males.
- win_id (categorical): the identity of the winning male in the competitive assay; 0 = blue standard male, 1 = selected male.
- sec2mate2 (continuous): block-mean standardised values of mating latency, in seconds.
File: Wing_length.csv
Description: a csv file containing fixed/random variables used to analyse male wing length.
Variables
- vial (categorical): identification for replicates.
- wing_length (continuous): measured as the distance, in mm, between the intersection of the anterior cross vein and the longitudinal vein, and the intersection of the longitudinal vein with the distal wing margin.