Extraordinary Flux in Sex Ratio

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 317; no. 5835; p. 214
• Main Authors: Charlat, Sylvain, Hornett, Emily A., Fullard, James H., Davies, Neil, Roderick, George K., Wedell, Nina, Hurst, Gregory D. D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 13.07.2007; The American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal populations; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Evolution; Biology; Brevia; Butterflies & moths; Butterflies - genetics; Butterflies - microbiology; Butterflies - physiology; Demecology; Eggs; Evolution; Female; Female animals; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genes, Insect; Hypolimnas bolina; Life Sciences; Male; Male animals; Molecular Sequence Data; Other; Protozoa. Invertebrata; Reproduction; Samoa; Selection, Genetic; Sex Ratio; Sexes; Suppressor genes; Wolbachia; Wolbachia - genetics; Wolbachia - physiology; Polynesia; Samoa; Oceania; Wolbachieae; Embryo; Insecta; Mortality; Male; Rickettsiales; Infection; Sex ratio; Wolbachia; Arthropoda; Lepidoptera; Bacteria; Population dynamics; Invertebrata
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1143369

The ratio of males to females in a species is often considered to be relatively constant, at least over ecological time. Hamilton noted that the spread of "selfish" sex ratio-distorting elements could be rapid and produce a switch to highly biased population sex ratios. Selection against a highly skewed sex ratio should promote the spread of mutations that suppress the sex ratio distortion. We show that in the butterfly Hypolimnas bolina the suppression of sex biases occurs extremely fast, with a switch from a 100:1 population sex ratio to 1:1 occurring in fewer than 10 generations.