Balancing selection via life-history trade-offs maintains an inversion polymorphism in a seaweed fly

Claire Mérot (), Violaine Llaurens, Eric Normandeau, Louis Bernatchez and Maren Wellenreuther
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Claire Mérot: Université Laval
Violaine Llaurens: Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle
Eric Normandeau: Université Laval
Louis Bernatchez: Université Laval
Maren Wellenreuther: The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Ltd

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract How natural diversity is maintained is an evolutionary puzzle. Genetic variation can be eroded by drift and directional selection but some polymorphisms persist for long time periods, implicating a role for balancing selection. Here, we investigate the maintenance of a chromosomal inversion polymorphism in the seaweed fly Coelopa frigida. Using experimental evolution and quantifying fitness, we show that the inversion underlies a life-history trade-off, whereby each haplotype has opposing effects on larval survival and adult reproduction. Numerical simulations confirm that such antagonistic pleiotropy can maintain polymorphism. Our results also highlight the importance of sex-specific effects, dominance and environmental heterogeneity, whose interaction enhances the maintenance of polymorphism through antagonistic pleiotropy. Overall, our findings directly demonstrate how overdominance and sexual antagonism can emerge from a life-history trade-off, inviting reconsideration of antagonistic pleiotropy as a key part of multi-headed balancing selection processes that enable the persistence of genetic variation.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14479-7

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