Preference for related mates in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster
Publication Type: |
Journal Article |
Year of Publication: |
2012 |
Authors: |
S. P. Robinson, W. J. Kennington, L. W. Simmons |
Publication/Journal: |
Animal Behaviour |
Keywords: |
drosophila melanogaster, inclusive fitness, kin selection, mate choice, sexual selection |
ISBN: |
0003-3472 |
Abstract:
Although inbreeding is known for its negative consequences, recent theory predicts that inclusive fitness gains from inbreeding should outweigh the costs of inbreeding depression in many situations, resulting in optimal fitness from mating with intermediate relatives (optimal inbreeding). Consistent with this theory, in a previous field study on Drosophila melanogaster, we found that males were more closely related to their mate than to females sampled randomly from the same population. However, in that study relatedness was higher than expected between all individuals collected mating, not just actual pairs, suggesting factors other than mate choice may have been at play. In the present study we aimed to gain a more detailed understanding of how relatedness influences male and female mate preference in D. melanogaster by investigating preference between pairs of known relatedness, under controlled conditions. We used multivariate techniques to investigate linear and nonlinear effects of relatedness while accounting for variation in morphological traits thought to be under sexual selection. Consistent with the field results, we found that females accepted courtship from closely related males more rapidly. We detected no influence of relatedness on the largely male controlled traits, latency to first courtship and copulation duration. These results are consistent with optimal inbreeding theory and provide weight to the idea that there may need to be a shift in the way we think about inbreeding. More work is warranted in this area.