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Has the inbreeding load for a condition-dependent sexual signalling trait been purged in insular lizard populations?

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Author

Summary, in English

Sexually selected traits are often condition-dependent and are expected to be affected by genome-wide distributed deleterious mutations and inbreeding. However, sexual selection is a powerful selective force that can counteract inbreeding through purging of deleterious mutations. Inbreeding and purging of the inbreeding load for sexually selected traits has rarely been studied across natural populations with different degrees of inbreeding. Here we investigate inbreeding effects (measured as marker-based heterozygosity) on condition-dependent sexually selected signalling trait and other morphological traits across islet- and mainland populations (n = 15) of an endemic lizard species (Podarcis gaigeae). Our data suggest inbreeding depression on a condition-dependent sexually selected signalling character among mainland subpopulations with low or intermediate levels of inbreeding, but no sign of inbreeding depression among small and isolated islet populations despite their higher overall inbreeding levels. In contrast, there was no such pattern among ten other morphological traits which are primarily naturally selected and presumably not involved in sexual signalling. These results are in line with purging of recessive deleterious alleles, or purging in combination with stochastic fixation of alleles by genetic drift, for a sexual signalling character in the islet environment, which is characterized by low population sizes and strong sexual selection. Higher clutch sizes in islet populations also raise interesting questions regarding the possibility of antagonistic pleiotropy. Purging and other non-exclusive explanations of our results are discussed.

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Pages

1310-1321

Publication/Series

Molecular Ecology

Volume

22

Issue

5

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Keywords

  • inbreeding
  • island biology
  • Podarcis
  • purging
  • sexual selection

Status

Published

Research group

  • Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0962-1083