Sexual interactions and local selection shape reproductive gene diversity and divergence

Sex Peptide in Drosophila melanogaster is an outlier for both nucleotide diversity (pi) within populations and population divergence (Fst) between populations.

• Why it matters: Current selective-sweep theory does not predict this combined pattern, limiting ways to detect genes under balancing selection linked to genotype-by-genotype coevolution.
• What they did: The study compared pi and Fst across D. melanogaster populations and tested a co-evolutionary model, finding elevated Fst × pi for multiple male and female genes interacting with Sex Peptide.
• The result: Genome-wide scans enriched neuronal-development genes, and outliers included fruitless, its interacting genes, and a female behavior gene, implying co-evolutionary selection shapes sperm competition and courtship evolution.

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