DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2bvq83bz3
title: Data from: Coevolution of longevity and female germline maintenance

description: An often-overlooked aspect of life-history optimization is the allocation
 of resources to protect the germline and secure safe transmission of
 genetic information. While failure to do so renders significant fitness
 consequences in future generations, germline maintenance comes with
 substantial costs. Thus, germline allocation should trade-off with other
 life history decisions and be optimized in accordance with an organism’s
 reproductive schedule. Here we tested this hypothesis by studying germline
 maintenance in lines of seed beetle, selected for early (E) or late (L)
 reproduction for 350 and 240 generations, respectively. Female animals
 provide maintenance and screening of male gametes in their reproductive
 tract and oocytes. Here, we revealed the ability of young and aged E and
 L-females to provide this form of germline maintenance by mating them to
 males with ejaculates with artificially elevated levels of protein and DNA
 damage. We find that germline maintenance in E-females peaks at young age
 and then declines, while the opposite is true for L-females, in accordance
 with the age of reproduction in respective regime. These findings identify
 the central role of allocation to secure germline integrity in life
 history evolution and highlight how females can play a crucial role in
 mitigating effects of male germline decisions on mutation rate and
 offspring quality.
description: # Coevolution of longevity and female germline maintenance
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2bvq83bz3](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2bvq83bz3) ## Description of the data and file structure The data analyzed in this publication give the number of adult offspring (F1 and F2) produced by F0 and F1 parents in the experiment. The files are named "F1_counts.txt" and "F2_counts.txt", respectively. ### Variables in "F1\_counts.txt" \#line : The evolution line identifier - i.e. an index number from 1-8 \#rad: The radiation treatment of F0 males; control (ctrl) or irradiated (irr) \#date1: the date when adult F0 females emerged \#date2: the date when adult F0 females were mated ID: Line and date specific female identifier \#offspring: number of F1 adult offspring produced over 48h. age: The age of the F0 females (date2-date1) when mated. ### Variables in "F2\_counts.txt" \#line : The evolution line identifier - i.e. an index number from 1-8 \#rad: The radiation treatment of F0 dads; control (ctrl) or irradiated (irr) \#date1_f: the date when adult F0 mother of the F1 daughter emerged \#date2_f: the date when adult F0 mother of the F1 daughter mated \#ID_f: Line and date-specific identifier of F1 female \#date1_m: the date when adult F0 mother of the F1 son emerged \#date2_m: the date when adult F0 mother of the F1 son mated \#ID_m: Line and date-specific identifier of F1 male \#offspring: Lifetime number of F2 adult offspring produced by F1 couples. \#age: The age of the F0 mothers (date2-date1) when mated. [females of age 1-3 were classified as "young", and females between 6-8 days old were classified as "aged"] **Code/Software** Code is provided to produce all analyses and figures (Fig. 1-3) in the file "EL_analysis_clean". Code was run in RStudio v.2022.07.2 Build 576.