Sex differences in local adaptation: what can we learn from reciprocal transplant experiments?

Erik I Svensson, Debora Goedert, Miguel A Gómez-Llano, Foteini Spagopoulou, Angela Nava-Bolaños, Isobel Booksmythe

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Local adaptation is of fundamental interest to evolutionary biologists. Traditionally, local adaptation has been studied using reciprocal transplant experiments to quantify fitness differences between residents and immigrants in pairwise transplants between study populations. Previous studies have detected local adaptation in some cases, but others have shown lack of adaptation or even maladaptation. Recently, the importance of different fitness components, such as survival and fecundity, to local adaptation have been emphasized. Here, we address another neglected aspect in studies of local adaptation: sex differences. Given the ubiquity of sexual dimorphism in life histories and phenotypic traits, this neglect is surprising, but may be partly explained by differences in research traditions and terminology in the fields of local adaptation and sexual selection. Studies that investigate differences in mating success between resident and immigrants across populations tend to be framed in terms of reproductive and behavioural isolation, rather than local adaptation. We briefly review the published literature that bridges these areas and suggest that reciprocal transplant experiments could benefit from quantifying both male and female fitness components. Such a more integrative research approach could clarify the role of sex differences in the evolution of local adaptations.This article is part of the theme issue 'Linking local adaptation with the evolution of sex differences'.

Original languageEnglish
Article number20170420
Number of pages11
JournalPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Volume373
Issue number1757
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018 Aug 27

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Evolutionary Biology

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