IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v502y2013i7469d10.1038_nature12489.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life history trade-offs at a single locus maintain sexually selected genetic variation

Author

Listed:
  • Susan E. Johnston

    (University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
    Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK
    Present addresses: Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK (S.E.J.); Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia (J.G.).)

  • Jacob Gratten

    (University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
    Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
    Present addresses: Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK (S.E.J.); Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia (J.G.).)

  • Camillo Berenos

    (Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK)

  • Jill G. Pilkington

    (Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK)

  • Tim H. Clutton-Brock

    (University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK)

  • Josephine M. Pemberton

    (Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK)

  • Jon Slate

    (University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK)

Abstract

Wild Soay sheep rams with large horns have more offspring, yet there is considerable genetic variation at RXFP2, a locus strongly implicated in horn size (with different alleles conferring either large or small horns); this study finds that although the larger horn allele leads to more offspring, the smaller horn allele leads to increased survival, meaning heterozygous rams (which develop medium-sized horns) have high reproductive success and survival, providing a rare example of heterozygote advantage.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan E. Johnston & Jacob Gratten & Camillo Berenos & Jill G. Pilkington & Tim H. Clutton-Brock & Josephine M. Pemberton & Jon Slate, 2013. "Life history trade-offs at a single locus maintain sexually selected genetic variation," Nature, Nature, vol. 502(7469), pages 93-95, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:502:y:2013:i:7469:d:10.1038_nature12489
    DOI: 10.1038/nature12489
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12489
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature12489?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adam D Hayward & Daniel H Nussey & Alastair J Wilson & Camillo Berenos & Jill G Pilkington & Kathryn A Watt & Josephine M Pemberton & Andrea L Graham, 2014. "Natural Selection on Individual Variation in Tolerance of Gastrointestinal Nematode Infection," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, July.
    2. Lina M. Giraldo-Deck & Jasmine L. Loveland & Wolfgang Goymann & Barbara Tschirren & Terry Burke & Bart Kempenaers & David B. Lank & Clemens Küpper, 2022. "Intralocus conflicts associated with a supergene," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:502:y:2013:i:7469:d:10.1038_nature12489. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.