Recombinant traits and recombinant mating preferences in hybrid zones

杂交区的重组性状和重组交配偏好

• 批准号: 0636712
• 负责人: Gil Rosenthal
• 金额: $ 30.62万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-03-31 至 2009-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0636712&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Recombinant; traits; recombinant; mating; preferences

One of the things Charles Darwin struggled with most in his Origin of Species was the apparent paradox of conspicuous ornaments in male animals. How could such extravagant structures be favored by natural selection when they are both costly to produce and dangerous to exhibit? Darwin suggested that males evolve conspicuous traits to satisfy females' "taste for the beautiful", giving ornamented males a mating advantage. Since Darwin's time, though, we have developed a sophisticated understanding of how such sexual selection operates in the unlikely case of males with a single attractive ornament (like a long tail) and females with a single mating preference (for long tails). Yet if males are sexually dimorphic - externally different from females - they are almost always flamboyant, with an array of conspicuous traits targeting different senses. How does a female integrate information about such an array into a decision about whom to mate with; and how do such decisions affect the evolution of conspicuous arrays? This question is fundamental to understanding sexual selection, as well as how new species are formed and maintained. This project will address this question by taking advantage of a remarkable phenomenon in nature: streams in highland Mexico where two species of swordtail fish (family Poeciliidae: Xiphophorus birchmanni and X. malinche) interbreed, forming a hybrid zone. Why do females mate with the "wrong" species - does their taste for the beautiful cause them to make mistakes? Are females of one species more likely than the other to make such mistakes? To address these questions, data on the distribution of DNA markers in the wild will be combined with a variety of techniques for measuring female mating preferences. Computer-animated movies of males performing courtship behavior can be created to display any set of visual characteristics; female preferences can thus be measured for any combination of traits of either. These will reveal the extent to which preferences select for particular kinds of males in the wild, as well as how interactions among genes can counteract the effects of female mate choice on the evolution of male sexual traits. This project provides unique opportunities for outreach in three main areas. (1) Collaboration with Mexican scientists through joint training of students and through continued work with an established lab in Mexico, (2) Training of minority undergraduates via a summer research program targeted at bilingual, Latino students, and (3) Local community outreach, through working with a local grassroots organization to promote sustainable use of freshwater resources.

查尔斯·达尔文在《物种起源》中最困扰的事情之一是雄性动物身上明显的装饰的明显悖论。当如此奢华的建筑生产成本高昂且展示危险时，它们怎么可能受到自然选择的青睐呢？达尔文认为，雄性进化出显着的特征是为了满足雌性“对美丽的品味”，从而使装饰性雄性具有交配优势。然而，自达尔文时代以来，我们已经对这种性选择如何在雄性具有单一有吸引力的装饰品（如长尾巴）和雌性具有单一交配偏好（长尾巴）的不太可能的情况下进行了深入的了解。然而，如果男性在性别上是二态性的——外表上与女性不同——那么他们几乎总是很华丽，具有一系列针对不同感官的显着特征。雌性如何将有关此类阵列的信息整合到与谁交配的决定中？这些决定如何影响显着阵列的演变？这个问题对于理解性选择以及新物种如何形成和维持至关重要。该项目将利用自然界中的一个显着现象来解决这个问题：墨西哥高地的溪流中，两种剑尾鱼（剑尾鱼科：Xiphophorus birchmanni 和 X. malinche）杂交，形成了一个混合区。为什么雌性会与“错误”的物种交配——她们对美丽的品味会导致她们犯错误吗？某一物种的雌性比另一物种的雌性更容易犯这样的错误吗？为了解决这些问题，野外 DNA 标记分布的数据将与测量雌性交配偏好的各种技术相结合。可以制作雄性求爱行为的电脑动画电影来展示任何视觉特征；因此，可以通过任一特征的任意组合来衡量女性偏好。这些将揭示野外对特定种类雄性的偏好选择程度，以及基因之间的相互作用如何抵消雌性择偶对雄性性特征进化的影响。该项目为三个主要领域的推广提供了独特的机会。 (1) 通过联合培训学生以及与墨西哥已建立的实验室继续合作，与墨西哥科学家进行合作，(2) 通过针对双语、拉丁裔学生的暑期研究计划对少数族裔本科生进行培训，以及 (3) 当地社区外展，通过与当地基层组织合作，促进淡水资源的可持续利用。