Evolutionary consequences of sex-specific selection in external fertilizers and hermaphrodites

Owing to fundamental differences in female and male reproductive biology, selection is expected to favour the evolution of different phenotypes in each sex. This can give rise to sexually antagonistic selection when beneficial alleles for one sex are deleterious when expressed in the other. Despite intensive study, previous research on sexually antagonistic selection has focused on species with physically separates sexes and internal fertilization. Here, I explore the consequences of sexual conflict and sexually antagonistic selection for the maintenance of genetic variation, and the evolution of reproductive and life-history traits in two non-traditional, but common, groups: external fertilizers and hermaphrodites.