Extraordinary flux in sex ratio.
The ratio of males to females in a species is often considered to be relatively constant, at least over ecological time. Hamilton noted that the spread of "selfish" sex ratio-distorting elements could be rapid and produce a switch to highly biased population sex ratios. Selection against a highly skewed sex ratio should promote the spread of mutations that suppress the sex ratio distortion. We show that in the butterfly Hypolimnas bolina the suppression of sex biases occurs extremely fast, with a switch from a 100:1 population sex ratio to 1:1 occurring in fewer than 10 generations.
Charlat
Sylvain
S
Department of Biology, University College London, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, UK. s.charlat@ucl.ac.uk
Hornett
Emily A
EA
Fullard
James H
JH
Davies
Neil
N
Roderick
George K
GK
Wedell
Nina
N
Hurst
Gregory D D
GD
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002080:Butterflies / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D017344:Genes, Insect; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012098:Reproduction; D018947:Samoa; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D012744:Sex Ratio; D020577:Wolbachia / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*