Evolution of female choice under intralocus sexual conflict and genotype-by-environment interactions

TL;DR

This study uses spatially explicit simulations to explore how intralocus sexual conflict and genotype-by-environment interactions influence female mate choice evolution, revealing complex effects on preferences based on sex-specific selection pressures.

Contribution

It extends existing theory by integrating GEIs and IASC in a spatial model to analyze their combined impact on female mate preferences.

Findings

IASC can weaken or reverse female preferences for high-condition males.

Preference for low-condition males can evolve depending on sex-specific benefits.

The strength of preferences depends on the relative hardness of selection on each sex.

Abstract

In many species, females are hypothesised to obtain 'good genes' for their offspring by mating with males in good condition. However, female preferences might deplete genetic variance and make choice redundant. Additionally, high-condition males sometime produce low-fitness offspring, for example because of environmental turnover and gene-by-environment interactions (GEIs) for fitness, or because fit males carry sexually-antagonistic alleles causing them to produce unfit daughters. Here, we extend previous theory by investigating the evolution of female mate choice in a spatially explicit evolutionary simulation implementing both GEIs and intralocus sexual conflict (IASC), under sex-specific hard or soft selection. We show that IASC can weaken female preferences for high-condition males or even cause a preference for males in low condition, depending on the relative benefits of producing well-adapted sons versus daughters, which in turn depends on the relative hardness of selection on males and females. We discuss the relevance of our results to conservation genetics and empirical evolutionary biology.