scholarly journals Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (8) ◽  
pp. e2008194118
Author(s):  
Michael J. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sexual Attraction ◽  
Sensory Ecology ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Signal Design ◽  
Female Preferences ◽  
Descent Of Man ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Insight Into

One hundred fifty years ago Darwin published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, in which he presented his theory of sexual selection with its emphasis on sexual beauty. However, it was not until 50 y ago that there was a renewed interest in Darwin’s theory in general, and specifically the potency of mate choice. Darwin suggested that in many cases female preferences for elaborately ornamented males derived from a female’s taste for the beautiful, the notion that females were attracted to sexual beauty for its own sake. Initially, female mate choice attracted the interest of behavioral ecologists focusing on the fitness advantages accrued through mate choice. Subsequent studies focused on sensory ecology and signal design, often showing how sensory end organs influenced the types of traits females found attractive. Eventually, investigations of neural circuits, neurogenetics, and neurochemistry uncovered a more complete scaffolding underlying sexual attraction. More recently, research inspired by human studies in psychophysics, behavioral economics, and neuroaesthetics have provided some notion of its higher-order mechanisms. In this paper, I review progress in our understanding of Darwin’s conjecture of “a taste for the beautiful” by considering research from these diverse fields that have conspired to provide unparalleled insight into the chooser’s mate choices.

scholarly journals Coevolution of male and female mate choice can destabilize reproductive isolation

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G. Aubier ◽  
Hanna Kokko ◽  
Mathieu Joron
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Male Mate Choice ◽  
Premating Isolation ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Female Preferences ◽  
Mutual Mate Choice ◽  
Male Mate

Abstract Sexual interactions play an important role in the evolution of reproductive isolation, with important consequences for speciation. Theoretical studies have focused on the evolution of mate preferences in each sex separately. However, mounting empirical evidence suggests that premating isolation often involves mutual mate choice. Here, using a population genetic model, we investigate how female and male mate choice coevolve under a phenotype matching rule and how this affects reproductive isolation. We show that the evolution of female preferences increases the mating success of males with reciprocal preferences, favouring mutual mate choice. However, the evolution of male preferences weakens indirect selection on female preferences and, with weak genetic drift, the coevolution of female and male mate choice leads to periodic episodes of random mating with increased hybridization (deterministic ‘preference cycling’ triggered by stochasticity). Thus, counterintuitively, the process of establishing premating isolation proves rather fragile if both male and female mate choice contribute to assortative mating.

scholarly journals Coevolution of male and female mate choice can destabilize reproductive isolation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G. Aubier ◽  
Hanna Kokko ◽  
Mathieu Joron
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Male Mate Choice ◽  
Premating Isolation ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Female Preferences ◽  
Mutual Mate Choice ◽  
Male Mate

AbstractSexual interactions play an important role in the evolution of reproductive isolation, with important consequences for speciation. Theoretical studies have focused on the evolution of mate preferences in each sex separately. However, mounting empirical evidence suggests that premating isolation often involves mutual mate choice. Here, using a population genetic model, we investigate how female and male mate choice coevolve under a phenotype matching rule and how this affects reproductive isolation. We show that the evolution of female preferences increases the mating success of males with reciprocal preferences, favouring mutual mate choice. However, the evolution of male preferences weakens indirect selection on female preferences and, with weak genetic drift, the coevolution of female and male mate choice leads to periodic episodes of random mating with increased hybridization (deterministic ‘preference cycling’ triggered by stochasticity). Thus, counterintuitively, the process of establishing premating isolation proves rather fragile if both male and female mate choice contribute to assortative mating.

scholarly journals Estimating encounter rates as the first step of sexual selection in the lizard Anolis sagrei

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1873) ◽  
pp. 20172244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ambika Kamath ◽  
Jonathan B. Losos
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Multiple Mating ◽  
Markov Chain Model ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Chain Model ◽  
Anolis Sagrei ◽  
Phenotypic Differences ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Insight Into

How individuals move through their environment dictates which other individuals they encounter, determining their social and reproductive interactions and the extent to which they experience sexual selection. Specifically, females rarely have the option of mating with all males in a population—they can only choose among the males they encounter. Further, quantifying phenotypic differences between the males that females encounter and those that sire females' offspring lends insight into how social and reproductive interactions shape male phenotypes. We used an explicitly spatio-temporal Markov chain model to estimate the number of potential mates of Anolis sagrei lizards from their movement behaviour, and used genetic paternity assignments to quantify sexual selection on males. Females frequently encountered and mated with multiple males, offering ample opportunity for female mate choice. Sexual selection favoured males that were bigger and moved over larger areas, though the effect of body size cannot be disentangled from last-male precedence. Our approach corroborates some patterns of sexual selection previously hypothesized in anoles based on describing them as territorial, whereas other results, including female multiple mating itself, are at odds with territorial polygyny, offering insight into discrepancies in other taxa between behavioural and genetic descriptions of mating systems.

scholarly journals Endless forms of sexual selection

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7988 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willow R. Lindsay ◽  
Staffan Andersson ◽  
Badreddine Bererhi ◽  
Jacob Höglund ◽  
Arild Johnsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Genetic Architecture ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Molecular Techniques ◽  
Population Divergence ◽  
Signal Design ◽  
Honest Signal ◽  
Secondary Sexual Traits ◽  
Sexually Selected Traits

In recent years, the field of sexual selection has exploded, with advances in theoretical and empirical research complementing each other in exciting ways. This perspective piece is the product of a “stock-taking” workshop on sexual selection and sexual conflict. Our aim is to identify and deliberate on outstanding questions and to stimulate discussion rather than provide a comprehensive overview of the entire field. These questions are organized into four thematic sections we deem essential to the field. First we focus on the evolution of mate choice and mating systems. Variation in mate quality can generate both competition and choice in the opposite sex, with implications for the evolution of mating systems. Limitations on mate choice may dictate the importance of direct vs. indirect benefits in mating decisions and consequently, mating systems, especially with regard to polyandry. Second, we focus on how sender and receiver mechanisms shape signal design. Mediation of honest signal content likely depends on integration of temporally variable social and physiological costs that are challenging to measure. We view the neuroethology of sensory and cognitive receiver biases as the main key to signal form and the ‘aesthetic sense’ proposed by Darwin. Since a receiver bias is sufficient to both initiate and drive ornament or armament exaggeration, without a genetically correlated or even coevolving receiver, this may be the appropriate ‘null model’ of sexual selection. Thirdly, we focus on the genetic architecture of sexually selected traits. Despite advances in modern molecular techniques, the number and identity of genes underlying performance, display and secondary sexual traits remains largely unknown. In-depth investigations into the genetic basis of sexual dimorphism in the context of long-term field studies will reveal constraints and trajectories of sexually selected trait evolution. Finally, we focus on sexual selection and conflict as drivers of speciation. Population divergence and speciation are often influenced by an interplay between sexual and natural selection. The extent to which sexual selection promotes or counteracts population divergence may vary depending on the genetic architecture of traits as well as the covariance between mating competition and local adaptation. Additionally, post-copulatory processes, such as selection against heterospecific sperm, may influence the importance of sexual selection in speciation. We propose that efforts to resolve these four themes can catalyze conceptual progress in the field of sexual selection, and we offer potential avenues of research to advance this progress.

scholarly journals Divergent Evolution of Male Aggressive Behaviour: Another Reproductive Isolation Barrier in Extremophile Poeciliid Fishes?

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Bierbach ◽  
Moritz Klein ◽  
Vanessa Sassmannshausen ◽  
Ingo Schlupp ◽  
Rüdiger Riesch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Hydrogen Sulphide ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Aggressive Behaviour ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Divergent Evolution ◽  
Poecilia Mexicana ◽  
Spring Area

Reproductive isolation among locally adapted populations may arise when immigrants from foreign habitats are selected against via natural or (inter-)sexual selection (female mate choice). We asked whether also intrasexual selection through male-male competition could promote reproductive isolation among populations of poeciliid fishes that are locally adapted to extreme environmental conditions [i.e., darkness in caves and/or toxic hydrogen sulphide (H2S)]. We found strongly reduced aggressiveness in extremophile Poecilia mexicana, and darkness was the best predictor for the evolutionary reduction of aggressiveness, especially when combined with presence of H2S. We demonstrate that reduced aggression directly translates into migrant males being inferior when paired with males from nonsulphidic surface habitats. By contrast, the phylogenetically old sulphur-endemic P. sulphuraria from another sulphide spring area showed no overall reduced aggressiveness, possibly indicating evolved mechanisms to better cope with H2S.

Sexual selection in Japanese macaques I: female mate choice or male sexual coercion?

1997 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 725-736 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSEPH SOLTIS ◽  
FUSAKO MITSUNAGA ◽  
KEIKO SHIMIZU ◽  
YOSHIMI YANAGIHARA ◽  
MASUMI NOZAKI
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sexual Coercion ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Japanese Macaques ◽  
Female Mate

Sexual Selection and Sexual Conflict in Crustaceans

2020 ◽  
pp. 305-331
Author(s):  
Rickey Cothran
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Sensory System ◽  
Mate Guarding ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Sensory Structures ◽  
Context Shapes

Research using crustaceans has improved the understanding of sexual selection and sexual conflict. This is particularly true for understanding the biology of male weaponry and sexual conflict over mate guarding. Male crustaceans often are equipped with exaggerated claws that they use to monopolize access to females or resources that females use for reproduction. However, these weapons are often used in other contexts, e.g. mate choice and coercion of females, and understanding their evolution requires a broader perspective of how these traits are built and the fitness consequences of their use for both the bearer and interacting individuals. Although less well studied than male weaponry, crustaceans also provide excellent examples of elaborate sensory structures that are used in scramble competition among males for females. In addition to studies on male-male competition, crustaceans have been well represented in research on intrasexual selection (for the most part, female mate choice). Crustacean females use a variety of sensory channels to assess mates, and a challenge is to better understand what is being conveyed by signaling males and the fitness consequences of mate choice for females. In some cases the female’s sensory system appears to be exploited by males, and this could lead to sexual conflict over mating. Research on crustaceans has also informed the understanding of sexual conflict over mate guarding, including the evolution of traits used to resolve conflict and how the ecological context shapes the costs and benefits of guarding for both sexes.

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