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Evolution

Title:		The cost of sexual signaling in yeast
Author(s):		Smith C; Greig D;
Address:		"The Galton Laboratory, Research Department of Genetics, Evolution, and Environment, University College London, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, United Kingdom"
Journal Title:		Evolution
Year:		2010
Volume:		64
Issue:		11
Page Number:		3114 - 3122
DOI:		10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.01069.x
ISSN/ISBN:		1558-5646 (Electronic) 0014-3820 (Linking)
Abstract:		"The handicap principle holds that costly sexual signals can reliably indicate mate quality. Only individuals of high quality can afford a strong signal--the cost of signaling is relatively lower for high-quality signalers than for low-quality signalers. This critical property is difficult to test experimentally because the benefit of signaling on mating success, and cost of signaling on other components of fitness, cannot easily be separated in obligate sexual organisms. We therefore studied the facultatively sexual yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which produces pheromones to attract potential mates. To precisely measure the cost of signaling, the signal was reduced or removed by deleting one or both copies of the pheromone-encoding genes and measuring asexual growth rate in competition with a wild-type signaler. We manipulated signaler quality either by changing the quality of the assay environment or by changing the number of deleterious mutations carried. For both types of treatment, we found that the cost of signaling decreased as the quality of the signaler increased, demonstrating that the yeast pheromone signal has the key property required for selection under the handicap principle. We found that cells of high genetic quality produce stronger signals than low-quality cells, verifying that the signal is indeed honest"
Keywords:		"Biological Evolution Genes, Fungal Genetics, Population Genotype Meiosis Models, Genetic Phenotype Pheromones Reproduction/genetics Saccharomyces cerevisiae/*physiology Selection, Genetic Signal Transduction/*genetics Species Specificity;"
Notes:		"MedlineSmith, Carl Greig, Duncan eng Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2010/06/30 Evolution. 2010 Nov; 64(11):3114-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.01069.x"