Sexual selection articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The narrative that larger males are the norm in mammals has predominated for over a century. An analysis of body mass dimorphism across mammals, sampling families by their species richness, indicates that males are not larger than females in most mammals and that monomorphism is almost as prevalent.

    • Kaia J. Tombak
    • , Severine B. S. W. Hex
    •  & Daniel I. Rubenstein

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The evolutionary trajectory of avian sex chromosomes may be more intricate than previously understood. In this study, sequencing and analysis of the neo-sex chromosomes and genome of the Crested Ibis suggests a multidirectional evolution of sex chromosomes in core waterbirds.

    • Lulu Xu
    • , Yandong Ren
    •  & Gang Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Centrioles have a conserved structure and function but have diversified in sperm. Here the authors provide insight into the molecular mechanisms and adaptive evolution underlying this diversification.

    • Sushil Khanal
    • , Ankit Jaiswal
    •  & Tomer Avidor-Reiss

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Parental care in birds includes diverse behaviours but the variation in care from each parent across the breeding cycle and between species is unclear. Here, the authors study 1533 bird species, finding different patterns across breeding stages, and that species with strong sexual selection or paternity uncertainty tend to show female-biased care.

    • Daiping Wang
    • , Wenyuan Zhang
    •  & Xiang-Yi Li Richter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Animals differ remarkably in how parental care is distributed between the male and female parent. Here, the authors use evolutionary simulations to reveal that sex differences in care readily emerge in a characteristic manner that is not captured by current sex role theory.

    • Xiaoyan Long
    •  & Franz J. Weissing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is still no consensus on the factors favouring the evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour in mammals. This study presents evidence that it is a widespread behaviour that has evolved repeatedly in mammals, and that may play an adaptive role in bonding and conflict resolution.

    • José M. Gómez
    • , A. Gónzalez-Megías
    •  & M. Verdú

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Birdsong is simultaneously repetitive and highly diverse. Sierro et al. resolve this apparent paradox through experiments in blue tits showing that consistent repetition is a fitness indicator, while song diversity reduces habituation during singing displays.

    • Javier Sierro
    • , Selvino R. de Kort
    •  & Ian R. Hartley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How has the genome duplication impacted the diversification of sexual characteristics in the teleost lineage? This study shows that androgen receptor ohnologs in medaka appear to have diverged in their roles for regulating morphological and behavioural sexual characteristics after loss from an ancestral role in spermatogenesis.

    • Yukiko Ogino
    • , Satoshi Ansai
    •  & Taisen Iguchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The opportunity for sexual selection is a key evolutionary parameter but we know little about its temporal dynamics. Using data from multiple animal species the authors show that this metric varies rapidly through time and that simulations should be used to avoid substantial misinterpretation.

    • Rômulo Carleial
    • , Tommaso Pizzari
    •  & Grant C. McDonald

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biological sex affects all aspects of animal physiology. Using the model C. elegans, the authors show that metabolomes are highly sex-specific and include a vast space of yet unidentified metabolites that may control development and lifespan.

    • Russell N. Burkhardt
    • , Alexander B. Artyukhin
    •  & Frank C. Schroeder

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Flowers are well known for attracting pollinators with visual and olfactory displays. Here, the authors show that in a nocturnal, desert pollination system, flower choice by pollinators is also mediated by floral humidity.

    • Ajinkya Dahake
    • , Piyush Jain
    •  & Robert A. Raguso

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The location where fertilization takes place can be highly variable across species, and especially between internal and external fertilizers. Kahrl et al. find that fertilization environment plays a significant role in the evolution and diversification of sperm morphology across vertebrate species.

    • Ariel F. Kahrl
    • , Rhonda R. Snook
    •  & John L. Fitzpatrick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ornaments are often less elaborate in females than males. Regardless of such sex differences, this meta-analysis across mutually-ornamented birds supports that ornamental traits could equally act as adaptive signals in males and females.

    • Sergio Nolazco
    • , Kaspar Delhey
    •  & Anne Peters

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Why do males typically compete more intensely for mating opportunities than do females and how does this relate to sex differences in gamete size? A new study provides a formal evolutionary link between gamete size dimorphism and ‘Bateman gradients’, which describe how much individuals of each sex benefit from additional matings.

    • Jonathan M. Henshaw
    • , Adam G. Jones
    •  & Lukas Schärer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In 1948, Bateman asserted that sexual selection is driven by the sex difference in gamete numbers. Lehtonen presents mathematical models broadly validating this controversial claim, while pointing out selection can be reversed under some conditions.

    • Jussi Lehtonen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors show that captive populations of zebra finches, which have been kept in isolation for up to 100 generations, have diverged in song dialect. When individuals singing different dialects are mixed, mating is assortative for song dialect.

    • Daiping Wang
    • , Wolfgang Forstmeier
    •  & Bart Kempenaers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Natural and sexual selection can be in opposition favouring different trait sizes, but disentangling these processes empirically is difficult. Here Okada et al. show that predation on males shifts the balance of selection in experimentally evolving beetle populations, disfavoring a sexually-selected male trait but increasing female fitness.

    • Kensuke Okada
    • , Masako Katsuki
    •  & David J. Hosken

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Higher vitamin D is associated with improved pregnancy and live birth rates, but its potential role in the human offspring sex ratio in unknown. Here, the authors show that the levels of vitamin D at preconception are positively associated with male live birth, particularly among women presenting inflammatory markers.

    • Alexandra C. Purdue-Smithe
    • , Keewan Kim
    •  & Sunni L. Mumford

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While size exaggeration is common in the animal kingdom, Pisanski & Reby show that human listeners can detect deceptive vocal signals of people trying to sound bigger or smaller, and recalibrate their estimates accordingly, especially men judging the heights of other men, with implications for the evolution of vocal communication.

    • Katarzyna Pisanski
    •  & David Reby

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate change may pose a challenge not only for survival of animals but also for their reproduction. Here, Schou et al. analyse how male and female ostrich fertility relates to fluctuating temperature across 20 years, finding reduced fertility away from the thermal optimum, but also individual variation in thermal tolerance.

    • Mads F. Schou
    • , Maud Bonato
    •  & Charlie K. Cornwallis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dioecy has evolved independently from hermaphroditic ancestors in different plant lineages. Here, the authors assemble Populus deltoides male and female genomes, and show the putative roles of a femaleness gene and a maleness gene in sex determination, which suggests independent evolution in different poplar species.

    • Liangjiao Xue
    • , Huaitong Wu
    •  & Tongming Yin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study resolves a long-standing mystery of why t haplotypes, an example of selfish genes, have persisted at unexpectedly low frequencies in wild mouse populations. It shows that multiple mating by females, which is more common at higher mouse population densities, decreases the frequency of driving t haplotypes.

    • Andri Manser
    • , Barbara König
    •  & Anna K. Lindholm

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Song et al. inferred that stridulatory wings and tibial ears co-evolved in a sexual context among crickets, katydids, and their allies, while abdominal ears evolved first in a non-sexual context in grasshoppers, and were later co-opted for courtship. They found little evidence that the evolution of these organs increased lineage diversification.

    • Hojun Song
    • , Olivier Béthoux
    •  & Sabrina Simon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Grapevine is one of a few ancestrally dioecious crops that are reverted to hermaphroditism during domestication. Here, the authors identify candidate genes related to male- and female-sterility in grapes and describe the genetic process that led to hermaphroditism during domestication.

    • Mélanie Massonnet
    • , Noé Cochetel
    •  & Dario Cantu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sensory drive theory posits that selection on sexual signals should depend on the environmental background. Here, Hulse et al. analyze the spatial statistics of body patterning in 10 darter fish species and find a correlation with habitat spatial statistics only for males, consistent with sexual selection via sensory drive.

    • Samuel V. Hulse
    • , Julien P. Renoult
    •  & Tamra C. Mendelson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Male orchid bees collect scents from the environment to attract females for mating. Here, Brand et al. combine population genomic, perfume chemistry, and functional analyses to show how divergence in odorant receptor genes may be driving reproductive divergence between two orchid bee species.

    • Philipp Brand
    • , Ismael A. Hinojosa-Díaz
    •  & Santiago R. Ramírez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pheromones are an essential cue for species recognition and mate selection in many insects including the butterfly Bicyclus anynana. Here the authors show that females with a short social experience of a new male learn preferences for novel pheromone blends, a preference which also occurs in their daughters.

    • Emilie Dion
    • , Li Xian Pui
    •  & Antónia Monteiro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Models of mate choice have mainly focused on the implications of female mate choice for reproductive isolation. Here, Aubier et al. develop a population genetic model of coevolution between female and male mate choice, which can lead the population to oscillate between assortative and random mating.

    • Thomas G. Aubier
    • , Hanna Kokko
    •  & Mathieu Joron

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Evolution of optimal gene expression in females is expected to be constrained by sexually-antagonistic selection on males. Here, Parker and colleagues show that gene expression has in fact become masculinized in female stick insects across five independent transitions to asexual reproduction.

    • Darren J. Parker
    • , Jens Bast
    •  & Tanja Schwander

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The viviparity driven conflict hypothesis predicts the evolution of the placenta will suppress the evolution of traits associated with pre-copulatory mate choice and accelerate speciation rate. Furness et al. support the former and disprove the latter predictions with comparative analyses of the poecilid fishes.

    • Andrew I. Furness
    • , Bart J. A. Pollux
    •  & David N. Reznick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sexual selection has the potential to either increase or decrease absolute fitness. Here, Cally et al. perform a meta-analysis of 65 experimental evolution studies and find that sexual selection on males tends to increase fitness, especially in females evolving under stressful conditions.

    • Justin G. Cally
    • , Devi Stuart-Fox
    •  & Luke Holman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    What factors explain variation in the pace and trajectory of evolutionary divergence between lineages? Here, the authors show that a proxy measure for sexual selection intensity predicts both the rate and direction of plumage colour evolution in a diverse radiation of New World passerine birds.

    • Christopher R. Cooney
    • , Zoë K. Varley
    •  & Gavin H. Thomas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Females are choosy about their mates, which should erode genetic diversity but in practice does not. Here, selection and genomic resequencing of Drosophila supports the hypothesis that this paradox can be explained by sexually selected traits reflecting genetic variation in condition.

    • Robert J. Dugand
    • , Joseph L. Tomkins
    •  & W. Jason Kennington

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although male genital shape is known to evolve rapidly in response to sexual selection, relatively little is known about the evolution of female genital shape. Here, the authors show that across onthophagine dung beetles, female genital shape has diverged much more rapidly than male genital shape.

    • Leigh W. Simmons
    •  & John L. Fitzpatrick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sexual selection is expected to be intensified in non-monogamous mating systems; in birds this might accelerate song evolution. Here, the authors show that across songbirds, polygyny and extra-pair paternity are associated with faster syllable repertoire size evolution and smaller repertoire size, respectively.

    • Kate T. Snyder
    •  & Nicole Creanza

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Theory predicts that mating systems influence the relative strength of sexual selection before and after mating. Here, Morimoto and colleagues demonstrate that higher polyandry weakens precopulatory while strengthening post-copulatory sexual selection on males in Drosophila melanogaster.

    • Juliano Morimoto
    • , Grant C. McDonald
    •  & Stuart Wigby

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although components of animal mating signals are often studied separately, many animals produce complex multimodal displays. Here, the authors show that the courtship display of male broad-tailed hummingbirds consists of synchronized motions, sounds, and colors that occur within just 300 milliseconds.

    • Benedict G. Hogan
    •  & Mary Caswell Stoddard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biases in adult sex ratio (ASR) are common, yet their causes and consequences are not well understood. Here, the authors analyse data from >6000 individuals of five shorebird species, showing that sex differences in juvenile survival drive ASR variation and biased ASR is associated with uniparental care.

    • Luke J. Eberhart-Phillips
    • , Clemens Küpper
    •  & Oliver Krüger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Physical structure is known to contribute to the appearance of bird plumage through structural color and specular reflection. Here, McCoy, Feo, and colleagues demonstrate how a third mechanism, structural absorption, leads to low reflectance and super black color in birds of paradise feathers.

    • Dakota E. McCoy
    • , Teresa Feo
    •  & Richard O. Prum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Studies of honest signaling have found an inconsistent relationship between carotenoid coloration and individual quality. Here, Weaver et al. compare dietary and biochemically converted carotenoid coloration using meta-analyses and show that converted carotenoids drive relationships with quality measures.

    • Ryan J. Weaver
    • , Eduardo S. A. Santos
    •  & Geoffrey E. Hill

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sexual selection on males is thought to favour male-biased gene expression. Here, Veltsos et al. experimentally evolve Drosophila pseudoobscura under different mating systems and, contrary to expectation, most often find masculinization of the transcriptome under monogamy rather than under elevated polyandry.

    • Paris Veltsos
    • , Yongxiang Fang
    •  & Michael G. Ritchie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Animal sexual signals should be conspicuous to mates but not to enemies. Here, the authors show that call site properties can set limits on the attractiveness of male frogs' advertisement call, but that males may balance sexual success over predation risk by digging deeper puddles.

    • Wouter Halfwerk
    • , Judith A. H. Smit
    •  & Michael J. Ryan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A characteristic of rational behaviour is that it is transitive, such that preferences are ranked in a strict linear order. Here, Arbuthnott and colleagues show that mate choice in the fruit fly,Drosophila melanogaster, is transitive at the population level and that preferred mates produce more offspring.

    • Devin Arbuthnott
    • , Tatyana Y. Fedina
    •  & Daniel E. L. Promislow

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