Genetic quality affects the rate of male and female reproductive ageing differently in Drosophila melanogaster

Males and females often maximize fitness by pursuing different reproductive strategies, with males commonly assumed to benefit more from increased resource allocation into current reproduction. Such investment should trade-off with somatic maintenance and may explain why males frequently live shorter than females. It also predicts that males should experience faster reproductive ageing. Here we investigate if reproductive ageing and lifespan respond to condition differently in male and female Drosophila melanogaster, as predicted if sexual selection has shaped male and female allocation patterns. We manipulate condition through genetic quality, by comparing individuals inbred or outbred for a major autosome. While genetic quality had a similar effect on condition in both sexes, condition had a much larger general effect on male than female reproductive output, as expected when sexual selection on vigour acts more strongly on males. We find no differences in reproductive ageing between t...