Extraordinary sex ratios: cultural effects on ecological consequences

PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e43364. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043364. Epub 2012 Aug 27.

Abstract

We model sex-structured population dynamics to analyze pairwise competition between groups differing both genetically and culturally. A sex-ratio allele is expressed in the heterogametic sex only, so that assumptions of Fisher's analysis do not apply. Sex-ratio evolution drives cultural evolution of a group-associated trait governing mortality in the homogametic sex. The two-sex dynamics under resource limitation induces a strong Allee effect that depends on both sex ratio and cultural trait values. We describe the resulting threshold, separating extinction from positive growth, as a function of female and male densities. When initial conditions avoid extinction due to the Allee effect, different sex ratios cannot coexist; in our model, greater female allocation always invades and excludes a lesser allocation. But the culturally transmitted trait interacts with the sex ratio to determine the ecological consequences of successful invasion. The invading female allocation may permit population persistence at self-regulated equilibrium. For this case, the resident culture may be excluded, or may coexist with the invader culture. That is, a single sex-ratio allele in females and a cultural dimorphism in male mortality can persist; a low-mortality resident trait is maintained by father-to-son cultural transmission. Otherwise, the successfully invading female allocation excludes the resident allele and culture and then drives the population to extinction via a shortage of males. Finally, we show that the results obtained under homogeneous mixing hold, with caveats, in a spatially explicit model with local mating and diffusive dispersal in both sexes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Alleles
  • Animals
  • Biological Evolution
  • Birds
  • Butterflies
  • Cultural Characteristics
  • Ecology*
  • Female
  • Genetic Linkage
  • Genetics, Population
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Models, Biological
  • Models, Statistical
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Population Dynamics
  • Sex Characteristics
  • Sex Ratio*

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant numbers DEB-0918413 and DEB-0918392. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.