Data from: Sexual and ecological selection on a sexual conflict gene

Sexual selection and conflict can act on genes with important metabolic
functions, potentially shaping standing genetic variance in such genes,
and thus evolutionary potential of populations. Here, using experimental
evolution, we show how reproductive competition intensity and thermal
environment affect selection on phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6Pgdh) – a
metabolic gene involved in sexual selection and conflict in the bulb mite.
The S allele of 6Pgdh increases male success in reproductive competition,
but is detrimental to S-bearing males’ partners. We found that the rate of
the S allele spread increased with the proportion of males in the
experimental populations, illustrating that harm to females is more easily
compensated for males under more intense sexual competition. Furthermore,
we found that under equal sex ratio, the S allele spreads faster at higher
temperature. While the direction of selection on 6Pgdh was not reversed in
any of the conditions we tested, which would be required for environmental
heterogeneity to maintain polymorphism at this locus, our study highlights
that ecological and sexual selection can jointly affect selection on
important metabolic enzymes.