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Perception costs of reproduction can magnify sexual selection

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 1, pages 1414–1415 (2017)Cite this article

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To the Editor — In a recent issue of Nature Ecology and Evolution, Harvanek et al. show that male fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) experience key survival and physiological costs as a sole consequence of perceiving female pheromones1,2. This is an outstanding example of how sensory perception can drastically modulate ageing through different pathways1,3,4,5, presumably by engaging physiological responses evolved to deal with environmental challenges that, in nature, would normally be associated with the perceived stimuli. Crucially, Harvanek et al. show that perception costs of reproduction by exposure to sexual pheromones mostly disappear when male flies have access to regular matings, suggesting that perception of sexual pheromones triggers physiological changes that only result in accelerated ageing when uncoupled with the mating expectations it generates1,2. Here, we suggest that such perception costs can magnify sexual selection.

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Fig. 1: How perception costs can magnify sexual selection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ethology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab, Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, University of Valencia, Valencia, C.P. 46980, Spain

    Pau Carazo, Roberto García-Roa & Zahida Sultanova

  2. Evolutionary Ecology Lab, Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, University of Valencia, Valencia, C.P. 46980, Spain

    Manuel Serra

Authors
  1. Pau Carazo
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  2. Roberto García-Roa
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  3. Zahida Sultanova
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  4. Manuel Serra
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Contributions

P.C. conceived the idea. P.C., R.G.-R., Z.S. and M.S. further developed the theory. P.C. wrote the paper with contributions from R.G.-R., Z.S. and M.S.

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Correspondence to Pau Carazo.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Carazo, P., García-Roa, R., Sultanova, Z. et al. Perception costs of reproduction can magnify sexual selection. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 1414–1415 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0312-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0312-6

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