SexSelec_Invasion · Understanding sexual selection to help controlling an invasive pest species
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-03-01 → 2020-02-29
- EU contribution
- €173,076
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-RI
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Understanding sexual selection to help controlling an invasive pest species
Understanding the operation of sexual selection is particularly relevant in pest insect species, where mating strategies can be exploited to control populations. Sterile Insect Techniques (SITs) consist of frequent releases of a high number of mass-reared sterile males to induce sterile matings. These techniques have been prioritised because of their limited side-effects on the ecosystem. Unfortunately, SITs run the risk of female counter-adaptation if female choice evolves to discriminate against released males. Drosophila suzukii, the ‘spotted-wing drosophila’ is a champion of invasion that colonised several continents and islands in the last two decades. Because D. suzukii feeds and oviposits on close-to-be-marketed fruits, it causes considerable economic losses. The situation requires rapid development of sustainable, affordable, and environment friendly methods to control D. suzukii. The results of this project provide a fundamental understanding of how male sexual traits and female preference for those traits co-evolve; essential information for the development of sustainable, environment friendly methods to fight pest species. I have combined cutting-edge techniques spanning behavioural ecology, large-scale phenotyping, and quantitative genetic tools to target three aims: • Identify male traits that predict male mating success, to mass-produce sterile males that are competitive with local males to mate with local females. Shape, size, and darkness of male wing spots best predicted their mating success. • Understand the genetic architecture of male sexual traits, to know the relative contributions of genetic factors and environmental conditions in order to optimize the production of attractive sterile males. Results suggest that male attractive wing spot is largely due their genetic background. • Determine whether females can counter-adapt to SITs by discriminating against sterile males. After using divergent artificial selection towards high and low values of the male wing spot attractiveness, I observed no evolution of female choice evolution, suggesting that female choice would not rapidly counter-adapt to SITs.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Invasive species can have dramatic consequences on the receiving ecosystem and on human activities. At the same time,invasion episodes offer a rare opportunity to observe evolution in action and study adaptation. Understanding thecornerstone role of sexual selection during adaptation can open an avenue of strategies to fight against pest species. Duringinvasion, novel environmental conditions and rapid changes in the genetic composition of populations are expected toinfluence the dynamics of sexual selection. However, neither theory nor data clearly predict whether sexual selection wouldbe reinforced or hampered during an invasive episode. Understanding the subtle consequences of invasion on sexualselection is crucial, as mating strategies provide tools to fight against pest species. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT)successfully eliminated several pest species, limiting side-effects on the ecosystem compared to traditional techniques suchas pesticides. In this project, I develop a series of experiments combining artificial selection experiments with large scalephenotyping to investigate the dynamics of sexual selection during invasion and test the potential to exploit mating strategiesto control pest populations in an evolutionary sustainable way. As a model species, I will use Drosophila suzukii, a championof invasion that colonised several continents and islands in the last decades. Because D. suzukii feeds and oviposits onclose-to-be-marketed fruits, it causes considerable economic losses and the situation requires rapid action. The results ofthe project will provide both a fundamental understanding of the dynamics of sexual selection during invasion, and essentialinformation for the development of sustainable, environment friendly methods to fight pest species, in particular D. suzukii.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisCoordinatorFrance
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union