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PubMed1977

Parental investment, mate choice, and mate quality.

Current theory in sexual selection is extended to predict within-sex variability with regard to selectivity towards mates in different mating systems. Generally, the sex that invests more in the care of each offspring should be more selective of mates than the sex investing less. Within each sex, individuals of low male quality should be less selective than individuals of high quality, but there should be less variation in selectivity among individuals of the sex investing more. When only one sex contributes parental care, however, individuals of that sex should be uniformly selective, while the other sex is expected to mate indiscriminately. Using feral pigeons (Columba livia), these hypotheses are tested for the case in which both sexes contribute substantial parental care, but in which females contribute more than males. As predicted, females were found to be more selective of mates than males were. On certain criteria, males of lower quality were less selective of mates than males of higher quality.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Mating behavior induces selective expression of Fos protein within the chemosensory pathways of the male Syrian hamster brain.

The effect of mating behavior on the expression of Fos protein was analyzed within the chemosensory pathways of the male Syrian hamster brain. Following a single mating test, the number of Fos-immunoreactive (Fos-ir) neurons increased within the amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and medial preoptic area. The mating-induced pattern of Fos expression within these brain regions shows a strong correlation with the sites of lesions that eliminate or alter mating behavior. In addition, Fos expression was increased within the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. These results provide the first demonstration of a dynamic and selective pattern of neuronal activity within specific nuclei known to be essential for mating behavior in the male Syrian hamster.

Amygdala↗
PubMed2000

Male killing can select for male mate choice: a novel solution to the paradox of the lek.

In lekking species, intense directional selection is applied to aspects of the male genotype by female choice. Under conventional quantitative genetics theory, the expectation is that this will lead to a rapid loss in additive genetic variance for the trait in question. However, despite female choice, male variation is maintained and hence it pays females to continue choosing. This has been termed the 'paradox of the lek'. Here we present a theoretical analysis of a putative sex-role-reversed lek in the butterfly Acraea encedon. Sex-role reversal appears to have come about because of infection with a male-killing Wolbachia. The bacterium is highly prevalent in some populations, such that there is a dearth of males. Receptive females form dense aggregations, and it has been suggested that males preferentially select females uninfected with the bacterium. As with more conventional systems, this presents a theoretical problem exactly analogous to the lek paradox, namely what maintains female variation and hence why do males continue to choose? We model the evolution of a male choice gene that allows discrimination between infected and uninfected females, and show that the stable maintenance of both female variation and male choice is likely, so long as males make mistakes when discriminating between females. Furthermore, our model allows the maintenance, in a panmictic population, of a male killer that is perfectly transmitted. This is the first model to allow this result, and may explain the long-term persistence of a male killer in Hypolimnas bolina.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Mate choice and maternal selection for specific parasite resistances before; during and after fertilization.

As Hamilton & Zuk pointed out, some loci may be of special importance for sexual selection because they play a crucial role in the co-evolution between parasites and hosts. In previous work I have tried to extend Hamilton & Zuk's parasite hypothesis for sexual selection, partly by including findings of immunologists and endocrinologists: in some species, handicapping signals may specifically reveal the current needs of the immune system which depends on the host's susceptibilities to different parasites. In other species, depending on the constellation of some key variables, non-handicapping signals could directly reveal the identity of resistance genes. Despite the general conflict of interests between the sexes, sexual selection may, in these cases, lead to signallers (i.e. mostly the males) focusing on improving their offspring's survival chances instead of trying to maximize their number. Males achieve this by allowing choosy females to optimize costs and benefits of each resistance. Both parts of the extended parasite hypothesis suggest that female choice for specific heritable matequalities aim to optimize the resistance genetics of the unfertilized eggs. However, intersexual selection could go further than just choosing a mate. Here, I list the possible selection levels at which the mother and/or her ova could select for specific sperm haplotypes before, during and after the formation of the zygote. For many of these possible selection levels, evidence suggests that selection after mating might favour heterozygosity or even certain specific allele combinations at loci which are involved in the parasite-host co-evolution (e.g. the major histocompatibility complex or the transferrin locus).

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Mass selection of conditional mating mutants of Tetrahymena thermophila.

The mating reaction in Tetrahymena thermophila includes a starvation period and two distinct cell interactions, co-stimulation and cell pairing, before the cells are cytoplasmically joined as conjugants. A selection procedure for harvesting mutants unable to mate at a restrictive temperature has been developed. A conjugant pair consisting of one cycloheximide-resistant cell and one wild-type cell (cycloheximide-sensitive) was itself sensitive to the drug. By adding cycloheximide and nutrient medium to a cross made at the restrictive and grow. Repetition of the selection procedure enriched for cells unable to conjugate at the restrictive temperature. The selected cells were able to grow at 38 degrees C and could conjugate at 28 degrees C. This procedure may be narrowed to select specifically for cell interaction mutants.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Time of mating behavior by males from lines of chickens selected for high and low mating frequency.

Male mating behavior was measured in lines of chickens selected for high or low mating frequency and in the randombred base population at various times throughout the day. Males were observed singly with flocks of five randombred hens for two 5-min trials at 0800, 1100, 1400, and 1700 hr. Behaviors measured were attempted mountings and completed matings. Line by time interactions were not significant. High-mating line males mated more than randombred controls, which mated more frequently than low-mating line males. The highest percentage of matings was completed in the late afternoon. Low-mating line males exhibited increased mating behavior with additional experience.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Evidence for selection by male mating success in natural populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura.

Gene arrangement frequencies were determined at two stages in the life history of Drosophila pseudoobscura taken from nature. Three populations in the central highlands of Mexico were each sampled twice during 1976. Gene arrangement frequencies were measured in adult males and in larvae that were the offspring of females collected at the same time. The adult males were in all likelihood a representative sample of those who fathered the larvae produced by the wild females. Differences in gene arrangement frequency between these two life stages should indicate the operation of natural selection. One-third of our comparisons of common gene arrangement frequencies in males and in larvae from the next generation were statistically significant, as were one-third of our comparisons of total frequency arrays in the two life stages. We consider the components of selection that could produce such frequency changes and reason that male mating success must be the major one. Gene arrangement frequencies in the Mexican populations fluctuate within wide bounds. Selection must act to retain the polymorphism in the face of this flux in gene arrangement frequencies, and we suggest that male mating success plays an important role.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Possible ecological risks of transgenic organism release when transgenes affect mating success: sexual selection and the Trojan gene hypothesis.

Widespread interest in producing transgenic organisms is balanced by concern over ecological hazards, such as species extinction if such organisms were to be released into nature. An ecological risk associated with the introduction of a transgenic organism is that the transgene, though rare, can spread in a natural population. An increase in transgene frequency is often assumed to be unlikely because transgenic organisms typically have some viability disadvantage. Reduced viability is assumed to be common because transgenic individuals are best viewed as macromutants that lack any history of selection that could reduce negative fitness effects. However, these arguments ignore the potential advantageous effects of transgenes on some aspect of fitness such as mating success. Here, we examine the risk to a natural population after release of a few transgenic individuals when the transgene trait simultaneously increases transgenic male mating success and lowers the viability of transgenic offspring. We obtained relevant life history data by using the small cyprinodont fish, Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) as a model. Our deterministic equations predict that a transgene introduced into a natural population by a small number of transgenic fish will spread as a result of enhanced mating advantage, but the reduced viability of offspring will cause eventual local extinction of both populations. Such risks should be evaluated with each new transgenic animal before release.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Natural selection and divergence in mate preference during speciation.

Sexual isolation can evolve due to natural selection against hybrids (reinforcement). However, many different forms of hybrid dysfunction, and selective processes that do not involve hybrids, can contribute to the evolution of sexual isolation. Here we review how different selective processes affect the evolution of sexual isolation, describe approaches for distinguishing among them, and assess how they contribute to variation in sexual isolation among populations of Timema cristinae stick-insects. Pairs of allopatric populations of T. cristinae living on different host-plant species exhibit greater sexual isolation than those on the same host, indicating that some sexual isolation has evolved due to host adaptation. Sexual isolation is strongest in regions where populations on different hosts are in geographic contact, a pattern of reproductive character displacement that is indicative of reinforcement. Ecological costs to hybridization do occur but traits under ecological selection (predation) do not co-vary strongly with the probability of between-population mating such that selection on ecological traits is not predicted to produce a strong correlated evolutionary response in mate preference. Moreover, F1 hybrid egg inviability is lacking and the factors contributing to reproductive character displacement require further study. Finally, we show that sexual isolation involves, at least in part, olfactory communication. Our results illustrate how understanding of the evolution of sexual isolation can be enhanced by isolating the roles of diverse ecological and evolutionary processes.

Adaptation, Biological↗
PubMed1992

Reversal of female mate choice by copying in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata).

Ever since Fisher (1958) formalized models of sexual selection, female mate choice has been assumed to be a genetically determined trait. Females, however, may also use social cues to select mates. One such cue might be the mate choice of conspecifics. Here we report the first direct evidence that a female's preference for a particular male can in fact be reversed by social cues. In our experiments using the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata), this reversal was mediated by mate-copying opportunities, such that a female (the 'focal' female) is given the opportunity to choose between two males, followed by a period in which she observes a second female (the 'model' female) displaying a preference for the male she herself did not prefer initially. When allowed to choose between the same males a second time, compared with control tests, a significant proportion of focal females reversed their mate choice and copied the preference of the model female. These results provide strong evidence for the role of non-genetic factors in sexual selection and underlie the need for new models of sexual selection that explicitly incorporate both genetic and cultural aspects of mate choice.

Acclimatization↗
PubMed2006

Adaptive genetic complementarity in mate choice coexists with selection for elaborate sexual traits.

Choice of genetically unrelated mates is widely documented, yet it is not known how self-referential mate choice can co-occur with commonly observed directional selection on sexual displays. Across 10 breeding seasons in a wild bird population, we found strong fitness benefits of matings between genetically unrelated partners and show that self-referential choice of genetically unrelated mates alternates with sexual selection on elaborate plumage. Seasonal cycles of diminishing variation in ornamentation, caused by early pairing of the most elaborated males, and influx of increasingly genetically unrelated available mates caused by female-biased dispersal, lead to temporal fluctuations in the target of mate choice and enabled coexistence of directional selection for ornament elaboration with adaptive pairing of genetically unrelated partners.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed2001

Spatial population genetic structure in Trillium grandiflorum: the roles of dispersal, mating, history, and selection.

The roles of the various potential ecological and evolutionary causes of spatial population genetic structure (SPGS) cannot in general be inferred from the extant structure alone. However, a stage-specific analysis can provide clues as to the causes of SPGS. We conducted a stage-specific SPGS analysis of a mapped population of about 2000 Trillium grandiflorum (Liliaceae), a long-lived perennial herb. We compared SPGS for juvenile (J), nonreproductive (NR), and reproductive (R) stages. Fisher's exact test showed that genotypes had Hardy-Weinberg frequencies at all loci and stage classes. Allele frequencies did not differ between stages. Bootstrapped 99% confidence intervals (99%CI) indicate that F-statistic values are indistinguishable from zero, (except for a slightly negative FIT for the R stage). Spatial autocorrelation was used to calculate f the average kinship coefficient between individuals within distance intervals. Null hypothesis 99%CIs for f were constructed by repeatedly randomizing genotypic locations. Significant positive fine-scale genetic structure was detected in the R and NR stages, but not in the J stage. This structure was most pronounced in the R stage, and declined by about half in each remaining stage: near-neighbor f = 0.122, 0.065, 0.027, for R, NR, and J, respectively. For R and NR, the near-neighbor f lies outside the null hypothesis 99%CI, indicating kinship at approximately the level of half-sibs and first cousins, respectively. We also simulated the expected SPGS of juveniles post dispersal, based on measured R-stage SPGS, the mating system, and measured pollen and seed dispersal properties. This provides a null hypothesis expectation (as a 99%CI) for the J-stage correlogram, against which to test the likelihood that post-dispersal events have influenced J-stage SPGS. The actual J correlogram lies within the null hypothesis 99%CI for the shortest distance interval and nearly all other distance intervals indicating that the observed low recruitment, random mating and seed dispersal patterns are sufficient to account for the disappearance of SPSG between the R and the J stages. The observed increase in SPGS between J and R stages has two potential explanations: history and local selection. The observed low total allelic diversity is consistent with a past bottleneck: a possible historical explanation. Only a longitudinal stage-specific study of SPGS structure can distinguish between historical events and local selection as causes of increased structure with increasing life history stage.

Genetics, Population↗
PubMed1981

Cross-mating of mice selectively bred for resistance or susceptibility to nitrous oxide anesthesia: potencies of nitrous oxide in offspring.

To investigate the genetic bases of differences in nitrous oxide requirement in mice selectively bred for resistance (HI mice) or susceptibility (LO mice) to nitrous oxide anesthesia, the potency of nitrous oxide in offspring having one HI and one LO parent was measured. Nitrous oxide ED50S (+/- SD) in offspring having HI male and LO female parents or LO male and HI female parents were 1.53 +/- 0.10 and 1.63 +/- 0.14 atm, respectively. In contrast, the nitrous oxide ED50 for offspring having two LO parents was 1.26 +/- 0.09 atm, and for offspring having two HI parents, 1.96 +/- 0.10 atm. Thus, the nitrous oxide ED50S for offspring produced by cross-mating HI and LO animals approximated the average values for their parents. We conclude that no single one gene determines dominance or recessiveness for nitrous oxide requirement in mice, and that the genetic control of resistance or susceptibility to nitrous oxide anesthesia probably involves many genes.

Anesthetics↗
PubMed2006

Sperm parasitism in ants: selection for interspecific mating and hybridization.

Interspecific mating in eusocial Hymenoptera can be favored under certain conditions even if all hybrid offspring are completely infertile. This exploits two key features of the eusocial Hymenoptera: a haplodiploid genetic system and reproductive division of labor in females. Interspecifically mated queens can still produce viable sons that will mate intraspecifically. Apparent reduced fitness resulting from producing infertile daughter gynes can be also offset by advantages conferred by hybrid workers. An important advantage is likely to be superior ability at using marginal habitats. Interspecifically mated queens can nest in sites where intraspecific competition will be low. By mating interspecifically, a queen trades expected reproductive success through female offspring for a higher probability of achieving some reproductive success. Females that mate interspecifically can be considered "sperm parasites" on the males of the other species. I provide evidence that sperm parasitism is responsible for widespread hybridization in North America among two species of the ant subgenus Acanthomyops (genus Lasius), and review evidence for sperm parasitism in other hybridization phenomena in ants. Sperm parasitism in ants represents a novel form of social parasitism in ants and a dispersal polymorphism. It may also act as a precursor to the evolution of some other recently discovered phenomena, such as genetic caste determination.

Animals↗