title: Male competition fitness landscapes predict both forward and reverse speciation.
abstract: Speciation is facilitated when selection generates a rugged fitness landscape such that populations occupy different peaks separated by valleys. Competition for food resources is a strong ecological force that can generate such divergent selection. However, it is unclear whether intrasexual competition over resources that provide mating opportunities can generate rugged fitness landscapes that foster speciation. Here we use highly variable male F2 hybrids of benthic and limnetic threespine sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus, 1758, to quantify the male competition fitness landscape. We find that disruptive sexual selection generates two fitness peaks corresponding closely to the male phenotypes of the two parental species, favouring divergence. Most surprisingly, an additional region of high fitness favours novel hybrid phenotypes that correspond to those observed in a recent case of reverse speciation after anthropogenic disturbance. Our results reveal that sexual selection through male competition plays an integral role in both forward and reverse speciation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology and BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1235-4837
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Keagy
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology and BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.
authors.forename: Liliana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lettieri
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology and BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.
authors.forename: Janette W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Boughman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D023701:Smegmamorpha / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: fitness landscape; fitness peak; male competition; multivariate; reverse speciation; sexual selection; speciation; species collapse; stickleback