Sexual selection and conflict can act on genes with important metabolic functions, potentially shaping standing genetic variance in such genes and thus evolutionary potential of populations. Here, using experimental evolution, we show how reproductive competition intensity and thermal environment affect selection on phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6Pgdh)—a metabolic gene involved in sexual selection and conflict in the bulb mite. The S allele of 6Pgdh increases male success in reproductive competition, but is detrimental to S‐bearing males’ partners. We found that the rate of the S allele spread increased with the proportion of males in the experimental populations, illustrating that harm to females is more easily compensated for males under more intense sexual competition. Furthermore, we found that under equal sex ratio, the S allele spreads faster at higher temperature. While the direction of selection on 6Pgdh was not reversed in any of the conditions we tested, which would be required for environmental heterogeneity to maintain polymorphism at this locus, our study highlights that ecological and sexual selection can jointly affect selection on important metabolic enzymes.

中文翻译：

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性冲突基因的性和生态选择

性选择和冲突可以作用于具有重要代谢功能的基因，可能会影响这些基因的长期遗传变异，从而影响种群的进化潜力。在这里，我们使用实验进化，展示了生殖竞争强度和热环境如何影响磷酸葡萄糖酸脱氢酶 (6Pgdh) 的选择，这是一种参与球螨性选择和冲突的代谢基因。6Pgdh 的 S 等位基因提高了雄性在繁殖竞争中的成功率，但对携带 S 的雄性伴侣有害。我们发现 S 等位基因的传播率随着实验人群中男性比例的增加而增加，说明在更激烈的性竞争下，对女性的伤害更容易被男性补偿。此外，我们发现在同等性别比例下，S 等位基因在较高温度下传播得更快。虽然在我们测试的任何条件下，6Pgdh 的选择方向都没有逆转，这是环境异质性维持该位点多态性所必需的，但我们的研究强调，生态选择和性选择可以共同影响对重要代谢酶的选择。