The interplay of biotic and abiotic factors in shaping genetic variation at 6Pgdh in the bulb mite

The polymorphism of 6Pgdh in the bulb mite Rhizoglyphus robini involves two alleles, S and F, which have opposing effects on male reproductive success. While S-bearing males have a reproductive advantage and the S allele fixes in the laboratory populations, polymorphism is regularly observed in natural populations. We hypothesize that the 6Pgdh polymorphism in the bulb mite may be maintained by context-dependent selection, driven by fluctuations of temperature and sexual selection intensity, as predicted by balancing selection models based on genotype-by-environment interactions. This study uses experimental evolution to track allele frequency changes over 13 generations under different temperatures (12°C and 18°C) and sexual selection intensities (equal and female-biased sex ratios). The results show a significant increase in F allele frequency under higher sexual selection intensity at 12°C. This suggests that individuals with the F allele gain reproductive advantage at lower temperat..., , # Data from: The interplay of biotic and abiotic factors in shaping genetic variation at 6Pgdh in the bulb mite

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.crjdfn3jp](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.crjdfn3jp)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset contains the data required to replicate the analyses presented in Unnikrishnan et al. (2025), which test the hypothesis that interactions between abiotic temperature conditions and biotic sexual selection intensity jointly shape allele frequency dynamics at the metabolic gene *6Pgdh* in the bulb mite *Rhizoglyphus robini*.

Experimental evolution data were collected from a 13-generation experiment using a 2 × 2 factorial design, comprising two temperature regimes (12°C and 18°C) and two adult sex-ratio treatments (equal sex ratio vs. female-biased ratio). Twenty replicate populations were established (five per treatment combination), and allele frequencies at the *6Pgdh* S/F polymorphism were measured at multiple evolutionary time points...,