Experimental evolution of a pheromone signal

Sexual signals are important in speciation, but understanding their evolution is complex, as these signals are often composed of multiple, genetically interdependent components. To understand how signals evolve, we thus need to consider selection responses in multiple components and account for the genetic correlations among components. One intriguing possibility is that selection changes the genetic covariance structure of a multicomponent signal in a way that facilitates a response to selection. However, this hypothesis remains largely untested empirically. In this study, we investigate the evolutionary response of the multicomponent female sex pheromone blend of the moth Heliothis subflexa to 10 generations of artificial selection. We observed a selection response of about 3/4s of a phenotypic standard deviation in the components under selection. Interestingly, other pheromone components that are biochemically and genetically linked to the components under selection did not change. W..., , , # Data from: Experimental evolution of a pheromone signal

Reference Information

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* File name: README_Dataset-ECE-2022-04-00591.txt
* Authors: Thomas Blankers
* Other contributors: Elise Fruitet, Emily Burdfield-Steel, Astrid T. Groot
* Date created: 2022-05-24
* Date modified: 2025-12-12

#### Description of the Data and file structure

* pedigreeH.RDS

Description: R data file with the pedigree data for the high line (selected for high acetate rates, see manuscript for details).

Variables: 

* animal - individual ID
* sire - father of the individual
* dam - mother of the individual
* sex - sex of the individual
* generation - selection line generation
* family - family identifier
* pedigreeL.RDS

Description: R data file with the pedigree data for the low line (selected for high acetate rates, see manuscript for details).

Variables :

* animal - individual ID
* sire - father of the individual
* dam - mother of the individual
* sex - sex of the individual
* generation - selectio...,