What doesn't kill you makes you stronger: detoxification ability as an honest sexually selected signal

Sexual selection maintains colourful signals that increase sexual attractiveness and dominance. Some sexually selected, colourful signals are pigments synthesized from ingested amino acids. The underlying metabolic pathways for these pigments often release toxic byproducts that can reduce individual survival. However, rather than discarding these otherwise harmful byproducts, animals may use them by integrating them into sexually selected traits. We tested this idea using males of the damselfly Hetaerina americana, which bear a red-pigmented wing spot that is sexually selected through male-male competition for mating territories. First, by using chromatography and confocal microscopy, we determined that the red wing spots are generated by ommochrome pigments derived from tryptophan metabolism. Second, we injected a group of males with the toxic precursor of these ommochromes, 3-hydroxy-kynurenine (3-Hk), confirming the toxicity of this compound in adult males. Finally, by using spectrophotometry and confocal microscopy, we showed that adult males injected with a LC50 of 3-Hk had more ommochromes in their wing spots than controls but similar survival, suggesting that the deposition of ommochrome pigment in the wing detoxifies the tryptophan metabolism process. Thus, we report for the first time that sexually selected pigmented signals involve the biochemical treatment of excreted compounds that could otherwise have lethal effects, a hypothesis we call "detoxifying ability signalling". Our results provide new insights about the origin and maintenance of sexual signals, elucidating a mechanism for the evolution of honest indicators of quality that could have arisen due to natural selection