Does perception of female cues modulate male short-term fitness components in ?

Phenotypic plasticity in reproductive behavior can be a strong driver of individual fitness. In species with high intra-sexual competition, changes in socio-sexual context can trigger quick adaptive plastic responses in males. In particular, a recent study in the vinegar fly () shows that males derive net fitness benefits from being shortly exposed to female cues ahead of access to mating (termed ), but the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon remain unknown.

Male Adaptive Plasticity Can Explain the Evolution of Sexual Perception Costs.

AbstractSensory perception of environmental cues has been shown to trigger plastic responses that can induce important fitness costs, including the dramatic modulation of aging across distant taxa. For example, male suffer a marked decrease in fitness, characterized by faster reproductive and actuarial aging, if they perceive female cues but fail to mate shortly after (aging via sexual perception). While this has been a breakthrough for our understanding of the mechanisms of aging, it raises the question of why such plastic responses evolved.

Sexual conflict drives micro- and macroevolution of sexual dimorphism in immunity.

Background: Sexual dimorphism in immunity is believed to reflect sex differences in reproductive strategies and trade-offs between competing life history demands. Sexual selection can have major effects on mating rates and sex-specific costs of mating and may thereby influence sex differences in immunity as well as associated host-pathogen dynamics. Yet, experimental evidence linking the mating system to evolved sexual dimorphism in immunity are scarce and the direct effects of mating rate on immunity are not well established.