Sex-specific genetic (co)variances of standard metabolic rate, body mass and locomotor activity in Drosophila melanogaster

A longstanding focus in evolutionary physiology concerns the causes and consequences of variation in maintenance metabolism. Insight into this can be gained by estimating the sex-specific genetic architecture of maintenance metabolism alongside other, potentially correlated traits on which selection may also act, such as body mass and locomotor activity. This may reveal potential genetic constraints affecting the evolution of maintenance metabolism. Here, we used a half-sibling breeding design to quantify the sex-specific patterns of genetic (co)variance in standard metabolic rate (SMR), body mass, and daily locomotor activity in Drosophila melanogaster. There was detectable additive genetic variance for all traits in both sexes. As expected, SMR and body mass were strongly and positively correlated, with genetic allometry exponents (bA±se) of 0.66±0.16 in females and 0.58±0.32 in males. There was a significant and positive genetic correlation between SMR and locomotor activity in males...