The evolution of female mating systems: tracing the origins and tracking the consequences

女性交配系统的进化：追溯起源并追踪后果

• 批准号: BB/V005855/1
• 负责人: Rebecca Boulton
• 金额: $ 38.48万
• 依托单位: University of Stirling
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FV005855%2F1
• 关键词: evolution; female; mating; systems; tracing

A key focus in evolutionary biology has been to understand how mating patterns evolve in different species and populations. Research into mating behaviour has historically focussed on why extravagant male traits evolve, but in recent years more subtle aspects of female mating behaviour have been uncovered. Traditionally females were assumed to mate only once (monandry) to acquire enough sperm to reproduce. However, it is now clear that monandry is rare and that females typically mate with multiple males (polyandry). Recent work has shown that while polyandry can be costly, it can also allow females to produce more offspring, and that polyandrous populations can be less likely to go extinct. Yet, while we know that female preference can drive evolutionary change in extravagant male traits (like the peacock's tail), we still do not know what drives the evolution of different female mating rates and why monandry is so rare. The work that I propose will advance our understanding of female mating strategies, broadening the field to ask questions about how and why female mating systems change. I will develop simulation models (collab. Dr Brad Duthie) to infer how many times the first sexually reproducing organisms, which lived billions of years ago, mated. These models will help me to understand how mating patterns in ancient organisms evolved alongside sexual reproduction, in terms of the evolution of separate sexes (males and females) and internal fertilisation (mating). I will then construct an evolutionary model to look at finer scale and more recent changes in female mating behaviour in a novel group of species, the parasitoid wasps. Parasitoid wasps are important natural enemies that are used to control pest species, so we know a lot about their behaviour, physiology and genetics. In particular, parasitoid females have diverse mating rates across different species ranging from asexuality (no-mating) through to monandry and polyandry. The diversity in and knowledge of female mating patterns across the parasitoids will allow me to use evolutionary analyses to estimate when and why female mating behaviour changed in the past, and whether these changes drive the evolution of other traits (collab. Dr Sally Street). As an example, parasitoids show great variation in the sex ratio; in some species over 90% of the population are female. I predict that polyandry will be more common in species with strongly female-biased sex ratios, so that females can obtain enough sperm to reproduce.I will also track changes in female mating behaviour in real-time using experimental evolution in the aphid parasitoid Lysiphlebus fabarum (collab. Prof Christoph Vorburger). I will run experiments at the University of Stirling, setting up greenhouse populations comprised of monandrous, polyandrous and asexual females and then alter the sex ratio, to either limit or increase the availability of males. I will measure female mating rates over generations to test whether factors such as mate-limitation drive changes in the frequency of different female mating strategies.My results will reveal whether polyandrous, monandrous or asexual parasitoids are likely to be more robust to extinction threats (such as climate change). These findings also have important ramifications for the control of pests and invasive species by parasitoid wasps and could be used to develop long-term sustainable and cost-effective biological control strategies in order to control crop pests and invasive species. The international partnerships that I have developed (Dr Luc Bussiere, Dr Bart Pannebakker) will facilitate the dissemination of my findings to industrial stakeholders so that my insights can be integrated into policy. Alongside my experimental work, I will also use bibliometric techniques to analyse research papers and investigate how integrating new methods and more diverse gender perspectives has shaped our understanding of female mating behaviour.

进化生物学的重点是了解不同物种和人群中的交配模式如何发展。历史上，对交配行为的研究一直集中在为什么奢侈的男性特征发展上，但是近年来，已经发现了女性交配行为的更微妙的方面。传统上，假定女性只能交配一次（Monandry），以获取足够的精子来繁殖。但是，现在很明显，蒙德里很少见，女性通常与多个雄性（一夫多妻制）交配。最近的工作表明，尽管一夫多妻制的成本很高，但它也可以允许女性产生更多的后代，而多态种群的灭绝可能性较小。然而，尽管我们知道女性的偏好可以推动奢侈的男性特征的进化变化（例如孔雀的尾巴），但我们仍然不知道是什么驱动了不同女性交配率​​的演变，以及为什么Monandry如此罕见。我提出的工作将提高我们对女性交配策略的理解，扩大该领域，以询问有关女性交配系统如何以及为什么会发生变化的问题。我将开发模拟模型（合作博士布拉德·杜西（Brad Duthie）），以推断出第一批性生殖的生物的次数，这些生物是数十亿年前的生物。这些模型将帮助我了解古代生物的交配模式如何随着性繁殖而演变，从单独的性别（男性和女性）和内部施肥（交配）的演变中。然后，我将构建一个进化模型，以查看更细的量表以及在新型物种寄生虫黄蜂中，女性交配行为的最新变化。寄生的黄蜂是用于控制害虫物种的重要天然敌人，因此我们对它们的行为，生理和遗传学了解很多。尤其是，寄生的女性在不同物种的交配率各不相同，范围从无性（无交配）到Monandry和Tolyandry。对寄生虫的女性交配模式的多样性和知识将使我能够使用进化分析来估算过去何时以及为什么过去的女性交配行为发生了变化，以及这些变化是否驱动了其他特征的演变（合作萨利街博士）。例如，寄生虫在性别比上显示出很大的变化。在某些物种中，超过90％的人口是女性。我预测，一夫多妻制在具有强烈女性偏见的性别比的物种中会更普遍，因此女性可以获得足够的精子来繁殖。我还将使用蚜虫寄生虫lysiphlebus fabarum Fabarum Fabarum的实验进化来实时跟踪女性交配行为的变化（Compolicoph christoph vorburger）。我将在斯特林大学进行实验，建立由单人，多义和无性雌性组成的温室人群，然后改变性别比，以限制或增加男性的可用性。我将在几代人的身上衡量女性交配率​​，以测试诸如伴侣限制的因素驱动不同女性交配策略频率的变化等因素是否会揭示多态，单方面或无性寄生虫是否可能对灭绝威胁更强大（例如气候变化）。这些发现还具有重要的后果，以控制寄生虫黄蜂对害虫和入侵物种的控制，可用于制定长期可持续性和具有成本效益的生物控制策略，以控制作物害虫和入侵物种。我建立的国际合作伙伴关系（Luc Bussiere博士，Bart Pannebakker博士）将有助于将我的发现传播给工业利益相关者，以便我的见解可以纳入政策中。除了我的实验工作之外，我还将使用文献计量技术来分析研究论文并调查整合新方法和更多样化的性别观点如何影响了我们对女性交配行为的理解。