Genetic background and thermal regime influence adaptation to novel environment in the seed beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus.

Climate change is associated with the increase in both the mean and variability of thermal conditions. Therefore, the use of more realistic fluctuating thermal regimes is the most appropriate laboratory method for predicting population responses to thermal heterogeneity. However, the long- and short-term implications of evolving under such conditions are not well understood.

Inbreeding reduces fitness of seed beetles under thermal stress.

Human-induced environmental change can influence populations both at the global level through climatic warming and at the local level through habitat fragmentation. As populations become more isolated, they can suffer from high levels of inbreeding, which contributes to a reduction in fitness, termed inbreeding depression. However, it is still unclear if this increase in homozygosity also results in a corresponding increase in sensitivity to stressful conditions, which could intensify the already detrimental effects of environmental warming.

Kin but less than kind: within-group male relatedness does not increase female fitness in seed beetles.

Theory maintains within-group male relatedness can mediate sexual conflict by reducing male-male competition and collateral harm to females. We tested whether male relatedness can lessen female harm in the seed beetle . Male relatedness did not influence female lifetime reproductive success or individual fitness across two different ecologically relevant scenarios of mating competition.

Multivariate intralocus sexual conflict in seed beetles.

Intralocus sexual conflict (IaSC) is pervasive because males and females experience differences in selection but share much of the same genome. Traits with integrated genetic architecture should be reservoirs of sexually antagonistic genetic variation for fitness, but explorations of multivariate IaSC are scarce. Previously, we showed that upward artificial selection on male life span decreased male fitness but increased female fitness compared with downward selection in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus.

Sexes suffer from suboptimal lifespan because of genetic conflict in a seed beetle.

Males and females have different routes to successful reproduction, resulting in sex differences in lifespan and age-specific allocation of reproductive effort. The trade-off between current and future reproduction is often resolved differently by males and females, and both sexes can be constrained in their ability to reach their sex-specific optima owing to intralocus sexual conflict. Such genetic antagonism may have profound implications for evolution, but its role in ageing and lifespan remains unresolved.

Signaling for food and sex? Begging by reproductive female white-throated magpie-jays.

Food begging is common in nutritionally dependent young of many animals, but structurally homologous calls recur in adult signal repertoires of many species. We propose eight functional hypotheses for begging in adults; these stem from observations in birds but apply broadly to other taxa in which begging occurs. Adult cooperatively-breeding white-throated magpie-jays (Calocitta formosa) use loud begging vocalizations, particularly near the nest site during reproduction.