Rudi Verspoor

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Research Associate at University of Liverpool

Females are expected to avoid low-quality males fathering their offspring. X chromosome meiotic drive (XCMD) makes males very low-quality mates. XCMDs are X chromosomes that, in males, cause the failure of all Y chromosome sperm, so all functional sperm carry the driving X and produce daughters. This transmission advantage can allow the XCMD to spr...

Meiotic drivers are genetic variants that selfishly manipulate the production of gametes to increase their own rate of transmission, often to the detriment of the rest of the genome and the individual that carries them. This genomic conflict potentially occurs whenever a diploid organism produces a haploid stage, and can have profound evolutionary...

Drosophila melanogaster and its close relatives have been extremely important model species in the development of population genetic models that serve to explain patterns of diversity in natural populations, a major goal of evolutionary biology. A detailed picture of the evolutionary history of these species is beginning to emerge, as the relative...

Selfish genes that distort the rules of ‘fair’ Mendelian inheritance are intrinsically linked with sex. The details of how sex occurs in a species determines the arena in which selfish genes compete to bias transmission in their favor. In turn, selfish genetic elements can drive rapid and fundamental changes in how sex occurs. These bidirectional i...

X chromosome meiotic drive (XCMD) kills Y‐bearing sperm during spermatogenesis, leading to the biased transmission of the selfish X chromosome. Despite this strong transmission, some natural XCMD systems remain at low and stable frequencies, rather than rapidly spreading through populations. The reason may be that male carriers can have reduced fit...

Selfish genetic elements (SGEs), specifically X-chromosome meiotic drive (XCMD), create huge conflicts within a hosts genome and can have profound effects on fertility. Suppressors are a common evolutionary response to XCMD to negate its costs. However, whether suppressors themselves can cause negative non-target effects remains understudied. Here,...

Selfish genetic elements (SGEs) are diverse and near ubiquitous in Eukaryotes and can be potent drivers of evolution. Here, we discuss SGEs that specifically act on sperm to gain a transmission advantage to the next generation. The diverse SGEs that affect sperm often impose costs on carrier males, including damaging ejaculates, skewing offspring s...

Selfish genetic elements (SGEs) are diverse and near ubiquitous in Eukaryotes and can be potent drivers of evolution. Here, we discuss SGEs that specifically act on sperm to gain a transmission advantage to the next generation. The diverse SGEs that affect sperm often impose costs on carrier males, including damaging ejaculates, skewing offspring s...

The use of agrochemicals in vegetable production could influence the selection for insecticide resistance in malaria vectors. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of information on the potential contribution of agrochemicals to insecticide resistance in Anopheles mosquitoes breeding on vegetable farms in southern Benin. A Knowledge, Attitudes and Pract...

Termites are widely used as a food resource, particularly in Africa and Asia. Markets for insects as food are also expanding worldwide. To inform the development of insect-based foods, we analysed selected minerals (Fe-Mn-Zn-Cu-Mg) in wild-harvested and commercially available termites. Mineral values were compared to selected commercially available...

Background Insects form an established part of the diet in many parts of the world and insect food products are emerging into the European and North American marketplaces. Consumer confidence in product is key in developing this market, and accurate labelling of content identity is an important component of this. We used DNA barcoding to assess the...

Selfish genetic elements such as selfish chromosomes increase their transmission rate relative to the rest of the genome and can generate substantial cost to the organisms that carry them. Such segregation distorters are predicted to either reach fixation (potentially causing population extinction) or, more commonly, promote the evolution of geneti...

Figure S1. The layout of the crossing schematics for (a) Experiment 1 comparing the fitness of the SRs X chromosome and nondriving X chromosomes from Tunisia and Spain on native and hybrid populations genetic backgrounds; (b) Experiments 2 and 4 comparing the fitness costs of SRs and the levels of suppression of SRs in multiple isofemale lines acro...

Figure S2. Gel electrophoresis image showing the amplification of the kl2 gene from the Drosophila subobscura Y chromosome.

Table S1. List of the isolines collected from the four locations that were used in the experiments.

Table S6. Differences between three populations in the proportion of offspring that are female when an SRs male was introgressed onto an isoline from that population.

Table S5. The offspring production, offspring sex ratio, and the X chromosome status of males produced by backcrossing hybrid females carrying one SRs and one Spanish X chromosome to either a Tunisian or a Spanish male.

Table S2. The proportion of female offspring produced from wild males caught in Tunisia and Spain collected in 2013.

Table S3. Tukey's post hoc tests on the differences in offspring produced by three types of X chromosome (Driving SRs—“SRs”, nondriving Tunisian—“Tun” and nondriving Spanish—“Spa”) on two different population genetic backgrounds (100% their own native background—Nat or 50%/50% their own background and that of a different population—Hyb).

Table S4. Differences in the number of offspring produced by SRs males when introgressed onto 39 isolines across three populations (Spain, n = 16; Tunisia, n = 15; United Kingdom, n = 8).

Meiotically driving sex chromosomes manipulate gametogenesis to increase their transmission at a cost to the rest of the genome. The intragenomic conflicts they produce have major impacts on the ecology and evolution of their host species. However their ecological dynamics remain poorly understood. Simple population genetic models predict meiotic d...

Meiotically driving sex chromosomes manipulate gametogenesis to increase their transmission at a cost to the rest of the genome. The intragenomic conflicts they produce have major impacts on the ecology and evolution of their host species. However, their ecological dynamics remain poorly understood. Simple population genetic models predict meiotic...

Food security is a critical issue for many low-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Appropriately identifying and utilising local resources can provide sustainable solutions to food security problems. Insects, which are traditionally consumed in many regions of the world, represent one such resource. Insects can be nutritionally ri...

Choosing the right mate can be critical to fitness, particularly for females of species that mate only once. One key trait by which females choose mates is male age. However, while some theories predict that females should prefer older males, others predict exactly the opposite. The evidence is also mixed, with females preferring older males in som...

Mating experiments using Drosophila have contributed greatly to the understanding of sexual selection and behavior. Experiments often require simple, easy and cheap methods to distinguish between individuals in a trial. A standard technique for this is CO 2 anaesthesia and then labelling or wing clipping each fly. However, this is invasive and has...

To determine the reproductive status of the native orchids of the biodiversity “hotspot”, Biological Corridor Tacaná-Boquerón, in the region of Soconusco, southeast Mexico, which are suffering the effects of habitat degradation, unsustainable exploitation and potentially, climate change, we analysed the species richness, abundance, habitat and abio...

Food security is a critical issue for many low income countries across the African continent. In areas unsuited for intensive agricultural production, local natural resources can play an important role, particularly those which are sustainable and on which people have relied on for centuries. In many regions of the world insects have been consumed...