Learning individual mating preferences

Mate Choice and Human Exceptionalism

Mate Choice ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691150673.003.0017 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Gil G. Rosenthal

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Human History ◽

Large Reservoir ◽

Mating Preferences ◽

Human Exceptionalism ◽

The Social ◽

Societal Changes ◽

Individual Mating ◽

Evolutionary Consequences ◽

Reproductive Consequences

This chapter presents a biological perspective on the diversity and complexity of human mate choice. Mating preferences can change very rapidly owing to the fact that they depend on a large reservoir of standing genetic variations whose effects can be modified and reversed by environmental and social inputs. In contemporary global society, rapid technological and societal changes means that individual mating preferences have an unprecedented potential to be revealed and expressed as choices, some with reproductive consequences. Individuals now have more agency than they ever have in human history, with a greater opportunity than ever to sample potential mates. The social and evolutionary consequences are sure to be fascinating.

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Modeling Mating Patterns Given Mutual Mate Choice: The Importance of Individual Mating Preferences and Mating System

Journal of Biological System ◽

10.1142/s0218339003000853 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 11 (03) ◽

pp. 205-219 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Carmen Bessa-Gomes ◽

Jean Clobert ◽

Stéphane Legendre ◽

Anders Pape Møller

Keyword(s):

Mate Choice ◽

Sex Ratio ◽

Mating System ◽

Population Biology ◽

Structured Populations ◽

Operational Sex Ratio ◽

Mating Preferences ◽

Mating Patterns ◽

Single Sex ◽

Individual Mating

When we consider structured populations with sexual reproduction, the distribution of characters among mating pairs may influence the population biology, namely its dynamics and genetics. In the present paper, we propose a general framework to estimate the population mating patterns taking into account individual mating preferences and mating system, thus taking into account the inter- and intra-sexual interactions such as mate competition and mate choice. According to our results, mating patterns are not a direct reflection of mating preferences, but also depend upon the average sex ratio between individuals that are ready to mate at any given time (i.e., the Operational Sex Ratio, OSR). Therefore, mating patterns should be assessed not only in function of preferences, but also of OSR. It is then possible to distinguish three OSR regions: (1) the equilibrium OSR, where there is a predominance of assortative mating patterns due to differential access to mates (inter-sexual interactions); (2) the slightly biased OSR, where there is a high diversity of mating patterns and no clear predominance of inter- or intra-sexual interactions; and (3) the highly biased OSR where there is a predominance of mating patterns corresponding to single-sex uniform preferences and an increased influence of intra-sexual interactions. We hope that this approach may allow to further explore the interaction between OSR and mate choice, namely how such interaction may affect sexual selection and mate choice tactics.

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Mate Choice, Speciation, and Hybridization

Mate Choice ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691150673.003.0016 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Gil G. Rosenthal

Keyword(s):

Gene Flow ◽

Mate Choice ◽

Genetic Exchange ◽

Mating Preferences ◽

Individual Mating ◽

The Relationship ◽

Isolated Species ◽

Geographically Isolated

This chapter reviews the ample literature on mate choice and speciation, as well as the more novel topic of mate choice and genetic exchange among species. It begins by discussing the widespread support for the intuitive predictions that mate choice should promote diversification among geographically isolated species, and that mate choice should evolve to minimize drastic loss of fitness through hybridization. The role of mate choice is more complicated when there is incomplete divergence between lineages; depending on their relationship to other traits under selection, mating preferences can act to accelerate speciation through reinforcement, but they can also act to increase gene flow between divergent lineages. Finally, the chapter addresses the relationship between individual mating decisions and hybridization between species.

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MateSim: Monte Carlo simulation for the generation of mating tables

10.1101/239178 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

A. Carvajal-Rodríguez

Keyword(s):

Monte Carlo Simulation ◽

Aging Process ◽

Mating Pattern ◽

Mating Preferences ◽

Individual Preferences ◽

Monogamous Species ◽

Positive Assortative Mating ◽

Individual Mating ◽

The Difference ◽

The Individual

AbstractIn species with sexual reproduction, the mating pattern is a meaningful element for understanding evolutionary and speciation processes. Given a mating pool where individuals can encounter each other randomly, the individual mating preferences would define the mating frequencies in the population. However, in every mating process we can distinguish two different steps. First, the encounter between partners. Second, the actual mating once the encounter has occurred. Yet, we cannot always assume that the observed population patterns accurately reflect the individual’s preferences. In some scenarios the individuals may have difficulties to achieve their preferred matings, such as in monogamous species with low population size, where the mating process is similar to a sampling without replacement. In the latter, the encounter process will introduce some noise that may disconnect the individual preferences from the obtained mating pattern. Actually, the difference between the mating pattern observed in a population and the mating preferences of the individuals have been shown by different modeling scenarios.Here I present a program that simulates the mating process for both discrete and continuous traits, under different encounter models and individual preferences, including effects as time dependence and aging. The utility of the software is demonstrated by replicating and extending, a recent study that showed how patterns of positive assortative mating, or marriage in human societies, may arise from non-assortative individual preferences. The previous result is confirmed and is shown to be caused by the marriage among the “ugliest” and oldest individuals, who after many attempts were finally able to mate among themselves. In fact, I show that the assortative pattern vanishes if an aging process prevents these individuals from mating altogether. The software MateSim is available jointly with the user’s manual, at http://acraaj.webs.uvigo.es/MateSim/matesim.htm

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Audience effect alters mating preferences in a livebearing fish, the Atlantic molly, Poecilia mexicana.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.1099084.555285 ◽

2008 ◽

Author(s):

Anne Magurran

Keyword(s):

Audience Effect ◽

Mating Preferences ◽

Poecilia Mexicana ◽

Livebearing Fish

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Phenology-mediated effects of phenotype on the probability of social polygyny and its fitness consequences in a migratory passerine

BMC Ecology and Evolution ◽

10.1186/s12862-021-01786-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

David Canal ◽

Lotte Schlicht ◽

Simone Santoro ◽

Carlos Camacho ◽

Jesús Martínez-Padilla ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecological Factors ◽

Local Networks ◽

Mediated Effects ◽

Fitness Consequences ◽

Phenotypic Quality ◽

Lifetime Number ◽

Local Breeding ◽

Individual Mating ◽

Sexual Traits ◽

Secondary Female

AbstractWhy females engage in social polygyny remains an unresolved question in species where the resources provided by males maximize female fitness. In these systems, the ability of males to access several females, as well as the willingness of females to mate with an already mated male, and the benefits of this choice, may be constrained by the socio-ecological factors experienced at the local scale. Here, we used a 19-year dataset from an individual-monitored population of pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) to establish local networks of breeding pairs. Then, we examined whether the probability of becoming socially polygynous and of mating with an already mated male (thus becoming a secondary female) is influenced by morphological and sexual traits as proxies of individual quality relative to the neighbours. We also evaluated whether social polygyny is adaptive for females by examining the effect of females’ mating status (polygamously-mated vs monogamously-mated) on direct (number of recruits in a given season) and indirect (lifetime number of fledglings produced by these recruits) fitness benefits. The phenotypic quality of individuals, by influencing their breeding asynchrony relative to their neighbours, mediated the probability of being involved in a polygynous event. Individuals in middle-age (2–3 years), with large wings and, in the case of males, with conspicuous sexual traits, started to breed earlier than their neighbours. By breeding locally early, males increased their chances of becoming polygynous, while females reduced their chances of mating with an already mated male. Our results suggest that secondary females may compensate the fitness costs, if any, of sharing a mate, since their number of descendants did not differ from monogamous females. We emphasize the need of accounting for local breeding settings (ecological, social, spatial, and temporal) and the phenotypic composition of neighbours to understand individual mating decisions.

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