Fitness consequences of redundant cues of competition in male D. melanogaster

Phenotypic plasticity can allow animals to adapt their behaviour, such as their mating effort, to their social and sexual environment. However, this relies on the individual receiving accurate and reliable cues of the environmental conditions. This can be achieved via the receipt of multimodal cues, which may provide redundancy and robustness. Male Drosophila melanogaster detect presence of rivals via combinations of any two or more redundant cue components (sound, smell and touch) and respond by extending their subsequent mating duration, which is associated with higher reproductive success. Although alternative combinations of cues of rival presence have previously been found to elicit equivalent increases in mating duration and offspring production, their redundancy in securing success under sperm competition has not previously been tested. Here, we explicitly test this by exposing male D. melanogaster to alternative combinations of rival cues, and examine reproductive success in bot...表型可塑性（phenotypic plasticity）可使动物调整自身行为（如交配投入）以适应其社会与性环境。但这一过程依赖于个体能够获取环境条件的精准且可靠的信号。这可通过接收多模态信号（multimodal cues）实现，这类信号可提供冗余性与鲁棒性。雄性黑腹果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）可通过任意两种及以上冗余信号组分（声音、嗅觉与触觉）的组合检测到竞争者的存在，并通过延长后续交配时长做出响应，该行为与更高的繁殖成功率相关。尽管此前已有研究发现，不同的竞争者存在信号组合可引发交配时长与后代产量的同等增幅，但这类信号在精子竞争（sperm competition）情境下保障繁殖成功的冗余性尚未得到验证。本研究通过将雄性黑腹果蝇暴露于不同的竞争者信号组合中，对该问题开展明确检验，并探究其繁殖成功率（原文内容未完整呈现）。