Does Sexual Conflict influence speciation through Postzygotic Reproductive Isolation?

Abstract

Reproduction in sexually reproducing species was classically seen as a cooperative effort between individuals that benefited from it symmetrically. This canon has since been rejected on the back of theoretical and empirical evidence that suggest that it is instead a game of conflict between individuals with discordant interests, as a consequence of the different costs and benefits associated with the reproduction for each sex. This discord in interests is especially prominent in large, promiscuous populations. Verbal and formal models predict that this conflict can act as an engine for speciation between allopatric populations, but experimental evidence for the same remains inconclusive. A recently published study conducted on ​ Drosophila melanogaster ​ suggests that populations experimentally evolved at higher levels of sexual conflict do in fact show higher levels of prezygotic reproductive isolation between allopatric replicates than those in relaxed conditions (with respect to sexual conflict). Using the same model system, this study investigates the levels of postzygotic reproductive isolation that have evolved between allopatric replicates under both relaxed conditions and the stress of sexual conflict.