scholarly journals A sex-specific trade-off between mating preferences for genetic compatibility and body size in a cichlid fish with mutual mate choice

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1740) ◽  
pp. 2959-2964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Thünken ◽  
Denis Meuthen ◽  
Theo C. M. Bakker ◽  
Sebastian A. Baldauf
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Quality Trait ◽  
Genetic Compatibility ◽  
Secondary Sexual Traits ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Mating Preferences ◽  
Mutual Mate Choice

Mating preferences for genetic compatibility strictly depend on the interplay of the genotypes of potential partners and are therein fundamentally different from directional preferences for ornamental secondary sexual traits. Thus, the most compatible partner is on average not the one with most pronounced ornaments and vice versa . Hence, mating preferences may often conflict. Here, we present a solution to this problem while investigating the interplay of mating preferences for relatedness (a compatibility criterion) and large body size (an ornamental or quality trait). In previous experiments, both sexes of Pelvicachromis taeniatus , a cichlid fish with mutual mate choice, showed preferences for kin and large partners when these criteria were tested separately. In the present study, test fish were given a conflicting choice between two potential mating partners differing in relatedness as well as in body size in such a way that preferences for both criteria could not simultaneously be satisfied. We show that a sex-specific trade-off occurs between mating preferences for body size and relatedness. For females, relatedness gained greater importance than body size, whereas the opposite was true for males. We discuss the potential role of the interplay between mating preferences for relatedness and body size for the evolution of inbreeding preference.

High perceived predation risk during development affects mutual mate choice in a cichlid fish

2019 ◽  
Vol 158 ◽  
pp. 227-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Meuthen ◽  
Sebastian A. Baldauf ◽  
Theo C.M. Bakker ◽  
Timo Thünken
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Predation Risk ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Mutual Mate Choice ◽  
Perceived Predation Risk

Mutual mate choice in the Asiatic toad, Bufo gargarizans, exerts stabilizing selection on body size

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenhua Luo ◽  
Chenliang Li ◽  
Hui Wang ◽  
Mian Zhao ◽  
Qi Gu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Stabilizing Selection ◽  
Bufo Gargarizans ◽  
Mutual Mate Choice ◽  
Toad Bufo

Intersexual differences in chemosensory responses to selected lipids reveal different messages conveyed by femoral secretions of male Iberian rock lizards

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 572-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pilar López ◽  
José Martín
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Tongue Flick ◽  
Secondary Sexual Traits ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Sexual Traits ◽  
Chemical Traits ◽  
Femoral Secretions

AbstractThe effects of intrasexual selection (i.e., male-male competition) and intersexual selection (i.e., mate choice) may result on the evolution of different secondary sexual traits. We tested whether chemosensory responses of male and female Iberolacerta cyreni lizards to femoral secretion of conspecific males (a chemical sexual trait used in social behavior) were eliciting by different chemical traits. Tongue-flick essays showed that males and females had similar chemosensory responses to the femoral secretions of males, but males and females differed in the magnitude of their chemosensory responses to the different chemicals found in secretions. Moreover, responses to chemicals related to body size depended on the own body size of the responding male, but did not in females. These results might support that femoral secretions of males convey different messages for male or female I. cyreni lizards.

scholarly journals Cancer susceptibility and reproductive trade-offs: a model of the evolution of cancer defences

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1673) ◽  
pp. 20140220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy M. Boddy ◽  
Hanna Kokko ◽  
Felix Breden ◽  
Gerald S. Wilkinson ◽  
C. Athena Aktipis
Keyword(s):  
Cell Proliferation ◽  
Body Size ◽  
Cancer Susceptibility ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Large Body Size ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Extrinsic Mortality ◽  
Sexually Selected Traits ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Selected Traits

The factors influencing cancer susceptibility and why it varies across species are major open questions in the field of cancer biology. One underexplored source of variation in cancer susceptibility may arise from trade-offs between reproductive competitiveness (e.g. sexually selected traits, earlier reproduction and higher fertility) and cancer defence. We build a model that contrasts the probabilistic onset of cancer with other, extrinsic causes of mortality and use it to predict that intense reproductive competition will lower cancer defences and increase cancer incidence. We explore the trade-off between cancer defences and intraspecific competition across different extrinsic mortality conditions and different levels of trade-off intensity, and find the largest effect of competition on cancer in species where low extrinsic mortality combines with strong trade-offs. In such species, selection to delay cancer and selection to outcompete conspecifics are both strong, and the latter conflicts with the former. We discuss evidence for the assumed trade-off between reproductive competitiveness and cancer susceptibility. Sexually selected traits such as ornaments or large body size require high levels of cell proliferation and appear to be associated with greater cancer susceptibility. Similar associations exist for female traits such as continuous egg-laying in domestic hens and earlier reproductive maturity. Trade-offs between reproduction and cancer defences may be instantiated by a variety of mechanisms, including higher levels of growth factors and hormones, less efficient cell-cycle control and less DNA repair, or simply a larger number of cell divisions (relevant when reproductive success requires large body size or rapid reproductive cycles). These mechanisms can affect intra- and interspecific variation in cancer susceptibility arising from rapid cell proliferation during reproductive maturation, intrasexual competition and reproduction.

scholarly journals Selection of lamb size and early pregnancy in Soay sheep (Ovies aries)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria João Janeiro ◽  
Jonathan M. Henshaw ◽  
Josephine M. Pemberton ◽  
Jill G. Pilkington ◽  
Michael B. Morrissey
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Early Pregnancy ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Ovis Aries ◽  
Direct Selection ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Soay Sheep ◽  
Ewe Lamb ◽  
Slow Evolution ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThe paradox of stasis – the unexpectedly slow evolution of heritable traits under direct selection – has been widely documented in the last few decades. This paradox is often particularly acute for body size, which is often heritable and where positive associations of size and fitness are frequently identified, but constraints to the evolution of larger body sizes are often not obvious. Here, we identify a trade-off between survival and size-dependent reproduction in Soay sheep (Ovis aries), contributes to selection against large body size. Using recently developed theory on non-linear developmental systems, then decompose total selection of ewe lamb mass along different causal paths to fitness. Larger lambs are more likely to become pregnant, which has a large viability cost. After controlling for this pathway, however, the association between lamb mass and subsequent lifetime fitness is positive. Thus this trade-off does not fully explain stasis of size in tis population, but it does substantially reduce the strength of positive directional selection of size that would otherwise occur. While selection currently favours reduced probability of early pregnancy, largely irrespective of body size, it is likely that the occurrence of early pregnancy could result from adaptation to conditions during a recent period during which population density was much lower.

Impact of social environment on inter- and intrasexual selection in a cichlid fish with mutual mate choice

2016 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 85-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saskia Hesse ◽  
Theo C.M. Bakker ◽  
Sebastian A. Baldauf ◽  
Timo Thünken
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Intrasexual Selection ◽  
Mutual Mate Choice

scholarly journals Disruptive sexual selection on male nuptial coloration in an experimental hybrid population of cichlid fish

2008 ◽  
Vol 363 (1505) ◽  
pp. 2861-2870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rike B Stelkens ◽  
Michele E.R Pierotti ◽  
Domino A Joyce ◽  
Alan M Smith ◽  
Inke van der Sluijs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Hybrid Population ◽  
Disruptive Selection ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Mating Preferences ◽  
Nuptial Coloration ◽  
Female Mating ◽  
Female Mating Preferences

Theory suggests that genetic polymorphisms in female mating preferences may cause disruptive selection on male traits, facilitating phenotypic differentiation despite gene flow, as in reinforcement or other models of speciation with gene flow. Very little experimental data have been published to test the assumptions regarding the genetics of mate choice that such theory relies on. We generated a population segregating for female mating preferences and male colour dissociated from other species differences by breeding hybrids between species of the cichlid fish genus Pundamilia . We measured male mating success as a function of male colour. First, we demonstrate that non-hybrid females of both species use male nuptial coloration for choosing mates, but with inversed preferences. Second, we show that variation in female mating preferences in an F 2 hybrid population generates a quadratic fitness function for male coloration suggestive of disruptive selection: intermediate males obtained fewer matings than males at either extreme of the colour range. If the genetics of female mate choice in Pundamilia are representative for those in other species of Lake Victoria cichlid fish, it may help explain the origin and maintenance of phenotypic diversity despite some gene flow.

scholarly journals Differences in male coloration are predicted by divergent sexual selection between populations of a cichlid fish

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1830) ◽  
pp. 20160172 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. M. Selz ◽  
R. Thommen ◽  
M. E. R. Pierotti ◽  
J. M. Anaya-Rojas ◽  
O. Seehausen
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Mating Preferences ◽  
Female Mating ◽  
Female Mating Preferences ◽  
Male Coloration

Female mating preferences can influence both intraspecific sexual selection and interspecific reproductive isolation, and have therefore been proposed to play a central role in speciation. Here, we investigate experimentally in the African cichlid fish Pundamilia nyererei if differences in male coloration between three para-allopatric populations (i.e. island populations with gene flow) of P. nyererei are predicted by differences in sexual selection by female mate choice between populations . Second, we investigate if female mating preferences are based on the same components of male coloration and go in the same direction when females choose among males of their own population, their own and other conspecific populations and a closely related para-allopatric sister-species, P. igneopinnis . Mate-choice experiments revealed that females of the three populations mated species-assortatively, that populations varied in their extent of population-assortative mating and that females chose among males of their own population based on different male colours. Females of different populations exerted directional intrapopulation sexual selection on different male colours, and these differences corresponded in two of the populations to the observed differences in male coloration between the populations. Our results suggest that differences in male coloration between populations of P. nyererei can be explained by divergent sexual selection and that population-assortative mating may directly result from intrapopulation sexual selection.

Female preference for a male sexual trait uncorrelated with male body size in the Palmate newt (Triturus helveticus)

Behaviour ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 144 (7) ◽  
pp. 797-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Female Preference ◽  
Adult Survival ◽  
Filament Length ◽  
Secondary Sexual Traits ◽  
Male Condition ◽  
Sexual Traits ◽  
Palmate Newt ◽  
Secondary Sexual

AbstractMate choice is often based on the assessment of multiple traits. Depending on whether traits provide redundant or different information about male characteristics, correlation between traits is expected to arise or not. In species where size increases with age, body size can be a reliable indicator of adult survival whereas secondary sexual traits advertise other qualities like the ability to exploit local resources. However, because of correlations between morphological traits it is often difficult to determine whether females base their preference on the absolute or the relative size of secondary sexual traits. We addressed this issue in the palmate newt, Triturus helveticus. We selected the two most variable traits, body size and filament length, whose weak correlation suggested that they could signal different aspects of male condition or quality. We tested female preference for both traits in two experiments in which we controlled either for body size or filament length. Females preferred males with long filament in experiment 1 and males with small body sizes in experiment 2. The preference for an exaggerated trait like the caudal filament is not unexpected in a context of inter-sexual selection. In contrast, the preference for small males contrasts with usual findings on mate choice. However, body size might not be a reliable quality indicator because males of different cohorts can experience different conditions throughout their life. The caudal filament, grown each breeding period, likely reflects male condition. By assessing such a character, females might evaluate the performance of a potential partner in the current environment regardless of its age.

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