Data from: Fruit flies diversify their offspring in response to parasite infection

The evolution of sexual reproduction is often explained by Red Queen
dynamics: Organisms must continually evolve to maintain fitness relative
to interacting organisms, such as parasites. Recombination accompanies
sexual reproduction and helps diversify an organism’s offspring, so that
parasites cannot exploit static host genotypes. Here we show that
Drosophila melanogaster plastically increases the production of
recombinant offspring after infection. The response is consistent across
genetic backgrounds, developmental stages, and parasite types but is not
induced after sterile wounding. Furthermore, the response appears to be
driven by transmission distortion rather than increased recombination. Our
study extends the Red Queen model to include the increased production of
recombinant offspring and uncovers a remarkable ability of hosts to
actively distort their recombination fraction in rapid response to
environmental cues.