Data from: Estimating selection through male fitness: three complementary methods illuminate the nature and causes of selection on flowering time

Our understanding of selection through male fitness is limited by the
resource demands and indirect nature of the best available genetic
techniques. Applying complementary, independent approaches to this problem
can help clarify evolution through male function. We applied three methods
to estimate selection on flowering time through male fitness in
experimental populations of the annual plant Brassica rapa: (1) an
analysis of mating opportunity based on flower production schedules, (2)
genetic paternity analysis, and (3) a novel approach based on principles
of experimental evolution. Selection differentials estimated by the first
method disagreed with those estimated by the other two, indicating that
mating opportunity was not the principal driver of selection on flowering
time. The genetic and experimental evolution methods exhibited striking
agreement overall, but a slight discrepancy between the two suggested that
negative environmental covariance between age at flowering and male
fitness may have contributed to phenotypic selection. Together, the three
methods enriched our understanding of selection on flowering time, from
mating opportunity to phenotypic selection to evolutionary response. The
novel experimental evolution method may provide a means of examining
selection through male fitness when genetic paternity analysis is not
possible.