Simmons LW, Fitzpatrick JL. Female genitalia can evolve more rapidly and divergently than male genitalia.
Nat Commun 2019;
10:1312. [PMID:
30899023 PMCID:
PMC6428859 DOI:
10.1038/s41467-019-09353-0]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2018] [Accepted: 03/07/2019] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Male genitalia exhibit patterns of divergent evolution driven by sexual selection. In contrast, for many taxonomic groups, female genitalia are relatively uniform and their patterns of evolution remain largely unexplored. Here we quantify variation in the shape of female genitalia across onthophagine dung beetles, and use new comparative methods to contrast their rates of divergence with those of male genitalia. As expected, male genital shape has diverged more rapidly than a naturally selected trait, the foretibia. Remarkably, female genital shape has diverged nearly three times as fast as male genital shape. Our results dispel the notion that female genitalia do not show the same patterns of divergent evolution as male genitalia, and suggest that female genitalia are under sexual selection through their role in female choice.
Although male genital shape is known to evolve rapidly in response to sexual selection, relatively little is known about the evolution of female genital shape. Here, the authors show that across onthophagine dung beetles, female genital shape has diverged much more rapidly than male genital shape.
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