Data from: Male-biased fitness effects of spontaneous mutations in Drosophila melanogaster

In populations with males and females, sexual selection may often
represent a major component of overall selection. Sexual selection could
act to eliminate deleterious alleles in concert with other forms of
selection, thereby improving the fitness of sexual populations.
Alternatively, the divergent reproductive strategies of the sexes could
promote the maintenance of sexually-antagonistic variation, causing sexual
populations to be less fit. The net impact of sexual selection on fitness
is not well understood, due in part to limited data on the sex-specific
effects of spontaneous mutations on total fitness. Using a set of mutation
accumulation lines of Drosophila melanogaster, we found that mutations
were deleterious in both sexes and had larger effects on fitness in males
than in females. This pattern is expected to reduce the mutation load of
sexual females and promote the maintenance of sexual reproduction.