Revealing environmental dependency of sexual selection leading to latitudinal cline of sexual traits

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17H04603
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 海外学術
• Research Field: Evolutionary biology
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: Takami Yasuoki 神戸大学, 人間発達環境学研究科, 教授 (60432358)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 性淘汰 / 交尾器 / 多様化 / 形質置換

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To reveal the evolutionary diversification of sexual traits depending on interaction between sexual selection and environmental variation, I studied the latitudinal cline in the male genital size of Eucarabus species (Coleoptera, Carabidae) distributed in Korean Peninsula. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences revealed that repeated invasion of genetically-differentiated lineages from the continent to the peninsula, suggesting historical complexity of diversification. This finding suggests that the observed latitudinal cline in male genital size is influenced by interaction between residential and invaded lineages such as reproductive character displacement, in addition to variation in the intensity of sexual selection depending on environmental variation among populations.

Free Research Field

進化生態学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

繁殖に関わる形質の多様化は，種の多様化を生み出しうる点で生物多様性の創出機構を理解する上で重要である．本研究は，朝鮮半島に分布するツヤオサムシ類に見られる雄交尾器サイズの緯度に沿った変異が，大陸から半島へと異なる時期に繰り返し進入した集団間の相互作用によって影響された可能性を明らかにした．この結果は，生物の多様化が生息環境の変異だけではなく，地理的なセッティングによっても影響されることを示唆する．