| Title: | Quantitative genetics of female mate preferences in an ancestral and a novel environment |
| Author(s): | Delcourt M; Blows MW; Rundle HD; |
| Address: | "Department of Biology and Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada" |
| DOI: | 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.01031.x |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1558-5646 (Electronic) 0014-3820 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "A female's mate preference is a potentially complex function relating variation in multiple male phenotypes with her probability of accepting individual males as a mate. Estimating the quantitative genetic basis preference functions within a population is empirically challenging yet key to understanding preference evolution. We employed a recently described approach that uses random-coefficient mixed models in the analysis of function-valued traits. Using a half-sibling breeding design in a laboratory-adapted Drosophila serrata population, we estimated the genetic (co)variance function of female preference for male sexual displays composed of nine contact pheromones. The breeding design was performed across two environments: the food to which the population was well adapted and a novel food that reduced average female productivity by 35%. Significant genetic variance in female preference was detected and the majority (64.2%) was attributable to a single genetic dimension (eigenfunction), suggesting that preferences for different pheromones are not genetically independent. The second eigenfunction, accounting for 24% of the total genetic variance, approached significance in a conservative test, suggesting the existence of a second, independent genetic dimension. There was no evidence that the genetic basis of female preference differed between the two environments, suggesting the absence of genotype-by-environment interactions and hence a lack of condition-dependent preference expression" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Drosophila/genetics/*physiology Female Genetic Variation Genotype Male *Mating Preference, Animal Sex Attractants;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineDelcourt, Matthieu Blows, Mark W Rundle, Howard D eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2010/05/21 Evolution. 2010 Sep; 64(9):2758-66. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.01031.x" |
