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No evidence that relatedness or familiarity modulate male harm in wild Drosophila melanogaster
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  • Ana Marquez-Rosado,
  • Clara García-Có,
  • Claudia Londoño-Nieto,
  • Pau Carazo
Ana Marquez-Rosado
University of Valencia

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Clara García-Có
University of Valencia
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Claudia Londoño-Nieto
University of Valencia
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Pau Carazo
University of Valencia
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Abstract

Sexual selection frequently promotes the evolution of aggressive behaviours that help males compete against their rivals, but which may harm females and hamper their fitness. Kin selection theory predicts that optimal male-male competition levels can be reduced when competitors are more genetically related to each other than to the population average, contributing to resolve this sexual conflict. Work in Drosophila melanogaster has spearheaded empirical tests of this idea, but studies so far have been conducted in lab-adapted populations in homogeneous rearing environments that may hamper kin recognition, and used highly skewed sex ratios that may fail to reflect average natural conditions. Here, we performed a fully factorial design with the aim of exploring how rearing environment (i.e. familiarity) and relatedness affect male-male aggression, male harassment, and overall male harm levels in a natural population of Drosophila melanogaster, under more natural conditions. Namely, we: a) manipulated relatedness and familiarity so that larvae reared apart were raised in different environments, as is common in the wild, and b) studied the effects of relatedness and familiarity under average levels of male-male competition in the field. We show that, contrary to previous findings, groups of unrelated-unfamiliar males were as likely to fight with each other and harass females than related-familiar males, and that overall levels of male harm to females were similar across treatments. Our results suggest that the role of kin selection in modulating sexual conflict is yet unclear in Drosophila melanogaster, and call for further studies that focus on natural populations and realistic socio-sexual and ecological environments.
20 Oct 2021Submitted to Ecology and Evolution
20 Oct 2021Submission Checks Completed
20 Oct 2021Assigned to Editor
26 Oct 2021Reviewer(s) Assigned
23 Nov 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
25 Nov 2021Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
07 Feb 20221st Revision Received
08 Feb 2022Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
08 Feb 2022Submission Checks Completed
08 Feb 2022Assigned to Editor
14 Feb 2022Editorial Decision: Accept