| Title: | Sex pheromone signal and stability covary with fitness |
| Author(s): | Blankers T; Lievers R; Plata C; van Wijk M; van Veldhuizen D; Groot AT; |
| Address: | "Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knoll-Strasse 8, Jena, Germany" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2054-5703 (Print) 2054-5703 (Electronic) 2054-5703 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "If sexual signals are costly, covariance between signal expression and fitness is expected. Signal-fitness covariance is important, because it can contribute to the maintenance of genetic variation in signals that are under natural or sexual selection. Chemical signals, such as female sex pheromones in moths, have traditionally been assumed to be species-recognition signals, but their relationship with fitness is unclear. Here, we test whether chemical, conspecific mate finding signals covary with fitness in the moth Heliothis subflexa. Additionally, as moth signals are synthesized de novo every night, the maintenance of the signal can be costly. Therefore, we also hypothesized that fitness covaries with signal stability (i.e. lack of temporal intra-individual variation). We measured among- and within-individual variation in pheromone characteristics as well as fecundity, fertility and lifespan in two independent groups that differed in the time in between two pheromone samples. In both groups, we found fitness to be correlated with pheromone amount, composition and stability, supporting both our hypotheses. This study is, to our knowledge, the first to report a correlation between fitness and sex pheromone composition in moths, supporting evidence of condition-dependence and highlighting how signal-fitness covariance may contribute to heritable variation in chemical signals both among and within individuals" |
| Keywords: | Lepidoptera fitness sex pheromone sexual communication trade-offs; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEBlankers, Thomas Lievers, Rik Plata, Camila van Wijk, Michiel van Veldhuizen, Dennis Groot, Astrid T eng England 2021/07/09 R Soc Open Sci. 2021 Jun 30; 8(6):210180. doi: 10.1098/rsos.210180. eCollection 2021 Jun" |
