Effects of selection and drift on genital morphology and accessory gland proteins in natural Drosophila melanogaster populations

在昆虫中，特别是在果蝇中，雄性生殖器和副腺蛋白(ACP‘s)表现出惊人的快速和分化的进化。人们援引多样化的性选择而不是中立来解释这些模式。然而，这一假说的经验证据仍然很少，而且主要局限于专注于长期进化变化的种间比较。这一建议通过比较多个自然种群来解决中性遗传漂移和选择操作对生殖器形状和ACP的相对影响。此外，通过对比不同种群结构的不同种群，我的方法将特别有助于区分不同的选择制度。这些结果将提供对男性生殖特征总体进化动态的洞察，也将提供在生殖隔离发生之前导致种群分化的性选择所起的作用。

In insects and in particular in Drosophila, male genitalia and accessory gland proteins (Acp’s) show strikingly rapid and divergent evolution. Diversifying sexual selection rather than neutrality has been invoked to explain the patterns. However, the empirical evidence for this hypothesis remains scarce and largely restricted to inter-specific comparisons focussing on long-term evolutionary changes. This proposal on D. melanogaster addresses the relative impact of neutral genetic drift and selection operating on genital shape and Acp’s by comparing multiple natural populations. Furthermore, by contrasting different sets of populations with different population structure, my approach will be in particular informative to distinguish between different selection regimes. The results will provide insights into the evolutionary dynamics of male reproductive characters in general, but also into the role of sexual selection leading to population divergence before reproductive isolation occurred.