scholarly journals Diet-based assortative mating through sexual imprinting

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.K. Delaney ◽  
H.E. Hoekstra
Keyword(s):  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Random Mating ◽  
Sexual Isolation ◽  
In Utero ◽  
Sexual Imprinting ◽  
Peromyscus Gossypinus ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
Cotton Mouse ◽  
Flavored Water ◽  
Dietary Cues

AbstractSpeciation is facilitated when traits subject to divergent selection also contribute to non-random mating—so-called ‘magic traits.’ Diet is a potential magic trait in animal populations because selection for divergence in consumed food may contribute to assortative mating and therefore sexual isolation. However, the mechanisms causing positive diet-based assortment are largely unknown. Here, using diet manipulations in a sexually imprinting species of mouse, Peromyscus gossypinus (the cotton mouse), we tested the hypothesis that sexual imprinting on a divergent diet could be a mechanism that generates rapid and significant sexual isolation. We provided breeding pairs with novel garlic- or orange-flavored water and assessed whether their offspring, exposed to these flavors in utero and in the nest before weaning, later preferred mates that consumed the same flavored water as their parents. While males showed no preference, females preferred males of their parental diet, which generated significant sexual isolation. Thus, our experiment demonstrates that sexual imprinting on dietary cues learned in utero and/or postnatally can facilitate reproductive isolation and potentially speciation.

scholarly journals Quantifying the prevalence of assortative mating in a human population

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Jaffe
Keyword(s):  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Random Mating ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Genetic Composition ◽  
Genetic Studies ◽  
Maintenance Of Sex ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
The Uk ◽  
First Time

AbstractFor the first time, empirical evidence allowed to construct the frequency distribution of a genetic relatedness index between the parents of about half a million individuals living in the UK. The results suggest that over 30% of the population is the product of parents mating assortatively. The rest is probably the offspring of parents matching the genetic composition of their partners randomly. High degrees of genetic relatedness between parents, i.e. extreme inbreeding, was rare. This result shows that assortative mating is likely to be highly prevalent in human populations. Thus, assuming only random mating among humans, as widely done in ecology and population genetic studies, is not an appropriate approximation to reality. The existence of assortative mating has to be accounted for. The results suggest the conclusion that both, assortative and random mating, are evolutionary stable strategies. This improved insight allows to better understand complex evolutionary phenomena, such as the emergence and maintenance of sex, the speed of adaptation, runaway adaptation, maintenance of cooperation, and many others in human and animal populations.

scholarly journals Sexual imprinting on ecologically divergent traits leads to sexual isolation in sticklebacks

2011 ◽  
Vol 278 (1718) ◽  
pp. 2604-2610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genevieve M. Kozak ◽  
Megan L. Head ◽  
Janette W. Boughman
Keyword(s):  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Sexual Isolation ◽  
Ecological Speciation ◽  
Mate Preference ◽  
Sexual Imprinting ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
Rapid Diversification ◽  
Species Isolation ◽  
Magic Traits

During sexual imprinting, offspring learn parental phenotypes and then select mates who are similar to their parents. Imprinting has been thought to contribute to the process of speciation in only a few rare cases; this is despite imprinting's potential to generate assortative mating and solve the problem of recombination in ecological speciation. If offspring imprint on parental traits under divergent selection, these traits will then be involved in both adaptation and mate preference. Such ‘magic traits’ easily generate sexual isolation and facilitate speciation. In this study, we show that imprinting occurs in two ecologically divergent stickleback species (benthics and limnetics: Gasterosteus spp.). Cross-fostered females preferred mates of their foster father's species. Furthermore, imprinting is essential for sexual isolation between species; isolation was reduced when females were raised without fathers. Daughters imprinted on father odour and colour during a critical period early in development. These traits have diverged between the species owing to differences in ecology. Therefore, we provide the first evidence that imprinting links ecological adaptation to sexual isolation between species. Our results suggest that imprinting may facilitate the evolution of sexual isolation during ecological speciation, may be especially important in cases of rapid diversification, and thus play an integral role in the generation of biodiversity.

scholarly journals Sexual imprinting and speciation in two Peromyscus species

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.K. Delaney ◽  
H.E. Hoekstra
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Sexual Isolation ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Mating Preferences ◽  
Sexual Imprinting ◽  
Postzygotic Barriers ◽  
Cotton Mouse ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
White Footed Mouse

AbstractSexual isolation, a reproductive barrier, can prevent interbreeding between diverging populations or species. Sexual isolation can have a clear genetic basis; however, it may also result from learned mate preferences that form via sexual imprinting. Here, we demonstrate that two sympatric species of mice—the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) and its sister species, the cotton mouse (P. gossypinus)—hybridize only rarely in the wild despite co-occurrence in the same habitat and lack of any measurable intrinsic postzygotic barriers in laboratory crosses. We present evidence that strong conspecific mating preferences in each species result in significant sexual isolation. We find that these preferences are learned in at least one species: P. gossypinus sexually imprints on its parents, but in P. leucopus, additional factors influence mating preferences. Our study demonstrates that sexual imprinting contributes to reproductive isolation that reduces hybridization between otherwise interfertile species, supporting the role for learning in mammalian speciation.

scholarly journals EFFECTS OF POPULATION SIZE AND SELECTION INTENSITY ON RESPONSES TO DISRUPTIVE SELECTION IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Genetics ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 715-735
Author(s):  
J S F Barker ◽  
L J E Karlsson
Keyword(s):  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Random Mating ◽  
Female Parent ◽  
Disruptive Selection ◽  
Lethal Gene ◽  
Selection Intensity ◽  
Bristle Number ◽  
Isolation Index ◽  
Selection Intensities ◽  
High Selection

ABSTRACT Disruptive selection for sternopleural bristle number with opportunity for random mating was done in the four treatment combinations of two population sizes (40 pairs and 8 pairs of selected parents) and two selection intensities (1 in 40 and 1 in 2). In each generation, matings among selected parents were observed in a mating chamber, and progeny collected separately from each female parent. In the high number, high selection intensity treatment, divergence between the high and low parts ceased about generation 11. The isolation index increased rapidly to generation 3, but then fluctuated to termination of the population at generation 17. The overall isolation index was significant, indicating a real tendency to assortative mating. The failure of the isolation index to increase after generation 3 was attributed to lower average mating fitness of high males (due to inbreeding) and reduced receptivity of low females (due to a homozygous lethal gene with a large effect on sternopleural bristle number in heterozygotes). In the two low number treatments, isolation indices fluctuated from generation to generation with no obvious trends, and none of the overall isolation indices were significantly different from zero. The high number, low selection intensity treatment showed very little divergence, and one of the replicates showed, in contrast with expectation and the high number, high selection intensity treatment, a significant tendency to disassortative mating. Intense disruptive selection may lead to assortative mating.

scholarly journals Diet‐based assortative mating through sexual imprinting

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (21) ◽  
pp. 12045-12050
Author(s):  
Emily K. Delaney ◽  
Hopi E. Hoekstra
Keyword(s):  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Sexual Imprinting

scholarly journals Selection using assortative mating in Drosophila melanogaster

1963 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 356-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenorchy McBride ◽  
Alan Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Random Mating ◽  
Selection Response ◽  
Index Selection ◽  
Individual Selection ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Selected Lines ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Rate Of Response

The effectiveness of the assortative mating of selected individuals in increasing selection response was tested, using abdominal chaeta score in Drosophila melanogaster. Three paired comparisons were made. In two sets of lines with 10 matings per line, individual score was used for selection and as the basis for the assortative mating. In the third set with 20 matings per line an index of individual and family score, designed to maximize rate of response, was used.The intensity of selection was one in ten in all lines. Flies were raised in vials and individual pedigrees were kept.In all comparisons, assortative mating gave a greater selection response, this being partly due to a greater realized heritability and partly to a greater selection differential. The effect of the assortative mating was largest in the index selected lines. With random mating, the effectiveness of the index selection itself when compared to individual selection was in accordance with theory.In two comparisons, assortative mating increased the rate of inbreeding. The highest rate of inbreeding was observed with index selection and assortative mating, even though there were here twice as many matings as in the individually selected lines.In the individual selection lines, the effective population size was 7·4 pairs of parents, compared to the actual value of 10 and in the index lines 7·0 compared to 20. In the former, only one-half of the matings in the initial generations made any permanent contributions to the line and in the index lines only one-third. Within generations and lines, there was a significant positive correlation between the mean score of a family and its inbreeding coefficient.It is suggested that assortative mating is a method of increasing selection response in some situations. Its particular characteristic is that it becomes more powerful when the heritability is high whereas all of the other environmental aids to individual selection are more effective when the heritability is low.

scholarly journals A test of sexual isolation in Drosophila

1966 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Forbes W. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Sexual Isolation ◽  
Genetic Differences ◽  
Genetic Changes ◽  
Positive Assortative Mating ◽  
Selection For

1. A test is described for the development of sexual isolation between a wild and a derived population of D. melanogaster adapted to a new diet, containing EDTA. Other experiments had shown that adaptation to the new diet involved genetic changes in all chromosomes. Also fitness was reversed on the alternative diets under crowded competitive conditions.2. In three replicated trials flies from each population were used to establish paired cage populations, supplied with the medium to which each was adapted, and the pairs of cages were joined to allow restricted immigration between them. The experiment was run for about twenty-five generations.3. After fifteen and twenty-five generations, flies were collected from each cage to provide eggs which were cultured on the alternative diets to determine how far the members of pairs of populations differed from each other and from the foundation population. There were striking differences between the sub-populations and the parent populations, attributable to immigration between the former. Judged by the differences in performance between the sub-populations, genetic differences persisted but these were minor compared with the differences between the parent populations.4. Tests of preferential mating on the part of flies from paired sub-populations were entirely negative.5. Fourteen generations of selection for positive assortative mating failed to provide evidence of sexual isolation between the two basic populations, adapted to different diets.6. From these and other experiments it is inferred that sympatric divergence is improbable in a species like D. melanogaster.

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