Data from: Social effects for locomotion vary between environments in Drosophila melanogaster females

Despite strong purifying or directional selection, variation is ubiquitous in populations. One mechanism for the maintenance of variation is indirect genetic effects, as the fitness of a given genotype will depend somewhat on the genes of its social partners. Indirect genetic effects (IGEs) describe the effect of genes in social partners on the expression of the phenotype of a focal individual. Here we ask what effect IGEs, and variation in IGEs between abiotic environments, has on locomotion in Drosophila. This trait is known to be subject to intralocus sexually antagonistic selection. We estimate the coefficient of interaction, Ψ, using six inbred lines of Drosophila. We found that Ψ varied between abiotic environments, and that it may vary across among male genotypes in an abiotic environment specific manner. We also found evidence that social effects of males alter the value of a sexually dimorphic trait in females, highlighting an interesting avenue for future research into sexual antagonism. We conclude that IGEs are an important component of social and sexual interactions and that they vary between individuals and abiotic environments in complex ways, with the potential to promote the maintenance of phenotypic variation.

尽管存在强烈的净化选择或定向选择，种群内的表型变异依然普遍存在。维持变异的一种机制是间接遗传效应（indirect genetic effects, IGEs），即特定基因型的适合度在一定程度上取决于其社会伙伴的基因。间接遗传效应（IGEs）指社会伙伴体内的基因对目标个体表型表达所产生的影响。本研究旨在探讨间接遗传效应及其在非生物环境间的变异对果蝇（Drosophila）运动能力的影响。已知该性状受到基因座内性拮抗选择的作用。我们利用6个果蝇近交系估算了交互系数Ψ。研究发现，Ψ在不同非生物环境间存在差异，且其在雄性基因型间的变化可能具有非生物环境特异性。此外，我们还发现雄性的社会效应会改变雌性的性二态性状值，这为未来性拮抗相关研究指明了颇具价值的方向。本研究结论表明，间接遗传效应是社会与性互作的重要组成部分，且其在个体间和非生物环境间以复杂方式存在变异，有望促进表型变异的维持。