title: Mating behavior as an indicator of quality of Drosophila subobscura males?
abstract: According to current theoretical predictions, any deleterious mutations that reduce nonsexual fitness may have a negative influence on mating success. This means that sexual selection may remove deleterious mutations from the populations. Males of good genetic quality should be more successful in mating, compared to the males of lower genetic quality. As mating success is a condition dependent trait, large fractions of the genome may be a target of sexual selection and many behavioral traits are likely to be condition dependent. We manipulated the genetic quality of Drosophila subobscura males by inducing mutations with ionizing radiation and observed the effects of the obtained heterozygous mutations on male mating behavior: courtship occurrence, courtship latency, mating occurrence, latency to mating and duration of mating. We found possible effects of mutations. Females mated more frequently with male progeny of nonirradiated males and that these males courted females faster compared to the male progeny of irradiated males. Our findings indicate a possible important role of sexual selection in purging deleterious mutations.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Marija
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Savic Veselinovic
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Sofija
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pavkovic-Lucic
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biological Research "Sinisa Stankovic", University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Zorana
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kurbalija Novicic
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Mihailo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jelic
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.|Institute for Biological Research "Sinisa Stankovic", University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stamenkovic-Radak
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.|Institute for Biological Research "Sinisa Stankovic", University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.|Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Andjelkovic
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003380:Courtship; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects; D005260:Female; D005720:Gamma Rays; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal
keywords: condition dependence; deleterious mutations; female preference; inbred lines; ionizing radiation; mutational load