title: Multivariate selection drives concordant patterns of pre- and postcopulatory sexual selection in a livebearing fish.
abstract: In many species, females mate with multiple partners, meaning that sexual selection on male traits operates across a spectrum that encompasses the competition for mates (that is, before mating) and fertilizations (after mating). Despite being inextricably linked, pre- and postcopulatory sexual selection are typically studied independently, and we know almost nothing about how sexual selection operates across this divide. Here we bridge this knowledge gap using the livebearing fish Poecilia reticulata. We show that both selective episodes, as well as their covariance, explain a significant component of variance in male reproductive fitness. Moreover, linear and nonlinear selection simultaneously act on pre- and postcopulatory traits, and interact to generate multiple phenotypes with similar fitness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58/b, 35131 Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Devigili
authors.affiliation: Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Western Australia, 6009 Crawley, Australia.
authors.forename: Jonathan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58/b, 35131 Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Nisio
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58/b, 35131 Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pilastro
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003307:Copulation; D005260:Female; D005306:Fertilization; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D008297:Male; D052586:Mating Preference, Animal; D011036:Poecilia