No support for intra-nor inter-locus sexual conflict over mating latency and copulation duration in a polyandrous fruit fly

Abstract

AbstractThe total strength of sexual selection on males depends on the relationship between various components of pre- and post-copulatory fitness. Misalignment between male and female interests creates inter-locus sexual conflict, where the fitness of one sex is increased at the expense of the other. Although rarely considered, mating behaviours can also be genetically correlated between males and females, creating intra-locus sexual conflict, where beneficial alleles in one sex are costly when expressed in the other sex. How inter- and intra-locus sexual conflicts operate on the expression of mating behaviours remains little understood. Here, we study male attractiveness, mating latency and copulation duration in two populations of the polyandrous Drosophila serrata. Univariate analyses show little genetic variance in mating latency, and that males, but not females, contribute to copulation duration genetic variance. Further, multivariate analyses revealed little covariance between the studied traits. However, analyses considering male and female contribution in a single framework supported genetic contributions from both sexes for mating behaviours and complex patterns of between sexes correlations. Finally, our study did not find any association between those mating behaviours and fitness component, specifically (i) no phenotypic covariance between male attractiveness and mating latency and, (ii) longer copulations did not result in the production of more offspring. With no detectable fitness benefits in any sexes for shorter mating latency or longer copulation duration, our results do not support the presence of inter-nor intra-locus sexual conflict for these mating traits.