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PubMed2005

Offspring sex ratio is related to paternal train elaboration and yolk corticosterone in peafowl.

Several recent experimental studies have provided strong evidence for the ability of birds to manipulate the sex ratio of their offspring prior to laying. Using a captive population of peafowl (Pavo cristatus), we tested experimentally the effects of paternal attractiveness on offspring sex ratio, and related sex ratio deviations to egg-yolk concentrations of testosterone, 17beta-estradiol and corticosterone. When females were mated to males whose attractiveness had been experimentally reduced by removing prominent eyespot feathers from their trains, they produced significantly more female offspring, had significantly higher yolk corticosterone concentrations and tended to have lower levels of yolk testosterone than when mated to the same males with their full complement of feathers. Concentrations of 17beta-estradiol did not vary consistently with sex ratio biases. These findings add to the small number of studies providing experimental evidence that female birds can control the primary sex ratio of their offspring in response to paternal attractiveness, and highlight the possibility that corticosterone and perhaps testosterone are involved in the sex manipulation process in birds.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

The multiple signals assessed by female satin bowerbirds: could they be used to narrow down females' choices of mates?

Female choice based on multiple male traits has been documented in many species but the functions of such multiple traits are still under debate. The satin bowerbird has a polygynous mating system in which males attract females to bowers for mating; females choose mates based on multiple aspects of males and their bowers. In this paper, we demonstrate that females use some cues to decide which males to examine closely and other cues to decide which males to mate with. Female visitation rates to bowers were significantly related to male size and the males' 'solitary' display rates, and, to a lesser extent, to the numbers of bower decorations. After controlling for female visitation rates, it was found that a male's mating success was significantly related to his size and the rate at which he 'painted' his bower with saliva and chewed up plant material.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Early experience and parent-of-origin-specific effects influence female reproductive success in mice.

Recent studies on mammals investigating parent-of-origin-specific effects such as genomic imprinting and maternal effects have demonstrated their impact on short-term measures of fitness, for example offspring growth. However, the long-term fitness consequences of parent-of-origin-specific effects and their role outside the immediate mother-offspring interaction remain largely unexplored. Here, we show that female mice mated to males that inherited the same set of paternal and maternal genes as themselves have a higher reproductive success than females mated to males of reciprocal genotype. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the early social environment experienced by an individual influences its reproductive success. Females raised with unrelated siblings in a mixed litter had a subsequent lower reproductive success than those that were fostered together with all their biological siblings in unmixed litters. Our results highlight the important influence of parent-of-origin-specific effects and conditions in early development on long-term reproductive success in mammals and suggest that parent-of-origin-specific effects may provide the underlying mechanism for beneficial coadaptation between genotypes, for example, in mate choice.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Tuning the drum: the mechanical basis for frequency discrimination in a Mediterranean cicada.

Cicadas are known to use sound to find a mate. While the mechanism employed by male cicadas to generate loud calling songs has been described in detail, little information exists to explain how their ears work. Using microscanning laser Doppler vibrometry, the tympanal vibrations in the cicada Cicadatra atra are measured in response to acoustic playbacks. The topographically accurate optical measurements reveal the vibrational behaviour of the anatomically complex tympanal membrane. Notably, the tympanal ridge, a distinct structural element of the tympanum that is a link to the receptor cells, undergoes mechanical vibrations reminiscent of a travelling wave. In effect, the frequency for which the maximum deflection amplitude is observed regularly decreases from the apex to the base of the ridge. It is also shown that whilst female ears are mechanically tuned to the male's song, the male's tympanum is only partially tuned to its own song. This study establishes the presence of a peripheral auditory mechanism that can potentially process auditory frequency analysis. In view of the importance of acoustic signalling in cicadas, this unconventional tympanal mechanism may be employed in the context of species recognition and sexual selection.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2006

Sexual selection and the evolution of brain size in primates.

Reproductive competition among males has long been considered a powerful force in the evolution of primates. The evolution of brain size and complexity in the Order Primates has been widely regarded as the hallmark of primate evolutionary history. Despite their importance to our understanding of primate evolution, the relationship between sexual selection and the evolutionary development of brain size is not well studied. The present research examines the evolutionary relationship between brain size and two components of primate sexual selection, sperm competition and male competition for mates. Results indicate that there is not a significant relationship between relative brain size and sperm competition as measured by relative testis size in primates, suggesting sperm competition has not played an important role in the evolution of brain size in the primate order. There is, however, a significant negative evolutionary relationship between relative brain size and the level of male competition for mates. The present study shows that the largest relative brain sizes among primate species are associated with monogamous mating systems, suggesting primate monogamy may require greater social acuity and abilities of deception.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Pleiotropy and the genomic location of sexually selected genes.

Sexual selection drives the evolution of traits involved in the competition for mates. Although considerable research has focused on the evolution of sexually selected traits, their underlying genetic architecture is poorly resolved. Here I address the pleiotropic effects and genomic locations of sexually selected genes. These two important characteristics can impose considerable constraints on evolvability and may influence our understanding of the process of sexual selection. Theoretical models are inconsistent regarding the genomic location of sexually selected genes. Models that do not incorporate pleiotropic effects often predict sex linkage. Conversely, sex linkage is not explicitly predicted by the condition-dependent model (which considers pleiotropic effects). Evidence largely based on reciprocal crosses supports the notion of sex linkage. However, although they infer genetic contribution, reciprocal crosses cannot identify the genes or their pleiotropic effects. By surveying the genome of Drosophila melanogaster, I provide evidence for the genomic location and pleiotropic effects of 63 putatively sexually selected genes. Interestingly, most are pleiotropic (73%), and they are not preferentially sex linked. Their pleiotropic effects include fertility, development, life span, and viability, which may contribute to condition and/or fitness. My findings may also provide evidence for the capture of genetic variation in condition via the pleiotropic effects of sexually selected genes.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Sexual dimorphism in primate evolution.

Sexual dimorphism is a pervasive phenomenon among anthropoid primates. Comparative analyses over the past 30 years have greatly expanded our understanding of both variation in the expression of dimorphism among primates, and the underlying causes of sexual dimorphism. Dimorphism in body mass and canine tooth size is familiar, as is pelage and "sex skin" dimorphism. More recent analyses are documenting subtle differences in the pattern of skeletal dimorphism among primates. Comparative analyses have corroborated the sexual selection hypotheses, and have provided a more detailed understanding of the relationship between sexual selection, natural selection, and mating systems in primates. A clearer picture is emerging of the relative contribution of various selective and nonselective mechanisms in the evolution and expression of dimorphism. Most importantly, recent studies have shown that dimorphism is the product of changes in both male and female traits. Developmental studies demonstrate the variety of ontogenetic pathways that can lead to dimorphism, and provide additional insight into the selective mechanisms that influence dimorphism throughout the lifetime of an animal. Evidence from the fossil record suggests that dimorphism probably evolved in parallel twice, and the dimorphism in some extinct hominoids probably exceeded that of any living primate. Our advances in understanding the behavioral/ecological correlates of dimorphism in living primates have not improved our ability to reconstruct social systems in extinct species on the basis of dimorphism alone, beyond the inference of polygyny or intense male-male competition. However, our understanding of the behavioral/ecological correlates of growth and development, and of the expression of dimorphism as a function of separate changes in male and female traits, offers great potential for inferring evolutionary changes in behavior over time.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Socially transmitted mate preferences in a monogamous bird: a non-genetic mechanism of sexual selection.

There is increasing evidence that animals can acquire mate preferences through the use of public information, notably by observing (and copying) the mate preferences of others in the population. If females acquire preferences through social mechanisms, sexual selection could act very rapidly to spread the preference and drive elaboration of the preferred trait(s). Although there are reports of 'mate-choice copying' in polygynous species, there is no clear evidence for this process in monogamous species. Here, we investigated whether adult female zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata can socially acquire sexual preferences for individual males and, in a separate study, for a generalized trait (coloured leg bands) of males. In both studies, test females observed males in two simultaneous conditions: a ('chosen') mixed-sex situation in which a male was paired with a (model) female, and a ('unchosen') same-sex situation in which a male was paired with another male. In the first experiment, after two weeks of females observing males, test females significantly preferred individual males who had been paired with another female (i.e. chosen males). In the second experiment, test females significantly preferred novel males that were wearing the same leg band colour as the apparently chosen males. Our findings are consistent with the conclusion that female zebra finches' mate preferences are altered by public information. Our study implies that mate preferences can spread rapidly through populations by social mechanisms, affecting the strength of sexual selection in a monogamous species.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Female mate preference and sexual conflict: females prefer males that have had fewer consorts.

Different aspects of male quality as a mate can vary independently. When this is the case, females may need to use multiple cues to accurately assess overall mate quality. We examined the pattern of mating preference in the cockroach Nauphoeta cinerea. Sexual conflict occurs in this species because male manipulation of female mating receptivity can result in reduced female fitness. We predicted that since females cannot remate within a single reproductive bout because of male manipulation, females should assess male mating history to avoid mating with males with low fertility caused by sperm exhaustion. In a mate-preference experiment, we found that females discriminated against males who had mated multiple times. Females also discriminated against males who had consorted with several females but had been prevented from mating with those females. Thus, females appeared to be able to detect cues on males that were derived from previous mates and to use this information to avoid mating with sperm-exhausted males. We suggest that females may commonly use multiple cues to assess different aspects of mate quality, especially when male quality changes over time. This is an under-studied phenomenon that could help explain individual variation in female mating preferences.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Influences of social learning on mate-choice decisions.

Evidence from both field and laboratory is consistent with the hypothesis that animals can acquire mate preferences by observing the mating behavior of others. It is difficult, however, to distinguish social learning about mates from a host of other social effects on mating that do not produce changes in preferences. Examples are drawn from laboratory studies on mate choice in female and male Japanese quail that illustrate ways in which social cues influence mating decisions. Quail of both sexes use social cues to modify their mate choices, but the sexes use the information to serve different purposes. Female quail gain preferences for males seen mating with other females, whereas males avoid females that they had observed mating with other males. This sex difference in social learning provides an example of how costs and benefits of sexual behavior can shape decision-making processes. Implications of the influence of social learning on sexual selection are briefly discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2006

Reconciling sexual selection to species recognition: a process-based model of mating decision.

Mating signals often encode information important for both species recognition and mate quality assessment and endure selection pressures that combine both stabilizing and directional components. Here, we present a family of models of mate preference for multiple-message signals. Our models are process based rather than purely normative, they assume the existence of one (or more) "utility function" that order signals along a scale of perceived appropriateness, and interpret preferences either as the differential probability of signals recognition or as the combined effect of differential recognition and direct comparison between signal alternatives. These models show the critical role played by the proximate mechanisms of information processing in influencing the ultimate function of female mate choice. They show that if preferences are an emergent property of the way animals recognize signals then species recognition and mate quality assessment are expected to constrain each other severely and to limit the overall discrimination power of the system. In contrast, if preferences result from two computational processes, recognition and comparison, the constraining effects of species recognition and mate quality assessment are sensibly reduced. In these cases, females may improve discrimination in mate quality by adopting permissive recognition rules and limiting the risks of heterospecific mating.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

"Some guys have all the luck": mate preference influences paced-mating behavior in female rats.

In the present study, mating behavior was observed in female rats that were given the opportunity to mate with two males simultaneously. Three groups of females were tested: 1) sexually naïve, naturally cycling rats in proestrous; 2) sexually naïve, hormone-primed, ovariectomized (OVX) rats; and 3) hormone-primed, OVX rats tested 1 week after sexual receptivity testing. One male rat was determined to be the preferred male for each female, if she spent more time with him during a mating test. Independent of sexual experience, female rats were less likely to leave their preferred male than their non-preferred male following intromissions. However, when they left their preferred male, they returned to him faster than to their non-preferred male. This effect of preference was slightly more robust in the OVX rats. When female rats from Group 2 were tested with the same pair of males for 3 additional tests, each female's preference for a particular male was stable. That is, a female rat preferred the same male in approximately 3 out of the 4 tests, which is more likely than would be expected by chance. In a final experiment, pairs of male rats were tested with different females once weekly to determine if different females would prefer particular males consistently. Although no male rat was preferred by all females, females consistently preferred the same male from each pair during approximately 70% of the tests. In conclusion, female mate preference may have adaptive significance for the reproductive success of rats.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2000

Females of the lekking great snipe do not prefer males with whiter tails.

A previous experimental study of great snipe, Gallinago media, has reported an effect on male mating success of the amount of white in their tails. That result is one of a very limited set of existing experimental results supporting a female mate preference for a morphological trait in animals. However, a later observational study did not find any correlation between amount of white and male mating success. If females sample a limited number of males, their preferences need not result in strong relationships between mating success and trait values in males, possibly explaining the failure to find the predicted correlation. Yet, females of lekking species are thought to have ample opportunities for mate sampling. To resolve these contrasting results, we present in this paper (1) a larger correlational study (several leks during 10 years) showing no relationship between male mating success and whiteness of tails (measured in several ways), and most importantly (2) evidence that individual females do not mate predominantly with males with very white tails among those males that each female samples. These results show that females do not prefer males with whiter tails as mates, within the contemporary natural variation in the trait. They also show that there is no sexual selection of the trait at present. This does not necessarily imply that white tails are not a sexually selected adaptation in males, but the mechanisms are likely to have been different from direct mate choice of whiter tails per se. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

Carotenoid modulation of immune function and sexual attractiveness in zebra finches.

One hypothesis for why females in many animal species frequently prefer to mate with the most elaborately ornamented males predicts that availability of carotenoid pigments is a potentially limiting factor for both ornament expression and immune function. An implicit assumption of this hypothesis is that males that can afford to produce more elaborate carotenoid-dependent displays must be healthier individuals with superior immunocompetence. However, whether variation in circulating carotenoid levels causes variation in both immune function and sexual attractiveness has not been determined in any species. In this study, we show that manipulation of dietary carotenoid supply invokes parallel changes in cell-mediated immune function and sexual attractiveness in male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata).

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Sex differences in the influence of mothers on the sociosexual preferences of their offspring.

The extent to which "nurture" as opposed to "nature" determines behavior and sociosexual preferences in mammalian species is controversial although most recent interest has focused on genetic determinants. We report here that if sheep and goats are cross-fostered at birth, but raised in mixed-species groups, their play and grooming behavior resembles that of their foster rather than genetic species. There are no sex differences in effects on these behaviors, and other species-specific behavior patterns such as aggression, browsing, climbing, and vocalizations are unaffected. In adulthood, cross-fostered males strongly prefer to socialize and mate with females of their foster mother's species, even if raised with a conspecific of their own species. Castration within 2 days of birth slightly reduces the level of this altered social preference but mating preference following short-term testosterone treatment is the same as for gonadally intact animals. Cross-fostered females also show significant preference for socializing with females and mating with males of their foster mother's species, although this effect is weaker than that in both gonadally intact and castrated males. When cross-fostered animals are placed in flocks containing members of only their genetic species for 3 years, male social and mating preferences for females of their mother's species remain virtually unaffected. Females change to display an exclusive mating preference for members of their genetic species in 1-2 years although they still retain some social interest in female members of their foster species. Thus, there are clear sex differences in the impact of the emotional bond between a mother and her offspring in these mammals. Effects on males are strongest and irreversibly maintained even after altering their social environment, whereas those on females are weaker and mating preferences are clearly adaptable in the face of altered social priorities. These sex differences are presumably caused by pre-, or early postnatal, organizational effects of sex hormones on the brain.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Temperature preferences of male field crickets ( Gryllus integer) alter their mating calls.

Temperature affects the mating displays of many ectothermic animals, yet almost no information exists on the temperature preferences of ectotherms while they are displaying for mates. This study investigated the preferences of displaying male field crickets ( Gryllus integer) for microhabitats of different temperatures. G. integer males attract sexually receptive females by calling from cracks in the ground. We collected data from the field on the temperature of male calling sites (cracks in the ground), on the amount of herbaceous cover (which affects crack temperature) surrounding calling sites, and on the temporal properties of male calls at different temperatures. Laboratory experiments demonstrated that males prefer warmer sites and confirmed that temperature influences mating calls. We conclude that males of this ectothermic species prefer to call for mates from warmer sites, and that microhabitat choice on the basis of temperature affects their mating calls, and potentially their reproductive success.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Can non-directional male mating preferences facilitate honest female ornamentation?

Recent studies have demonstrated male mate choice for female ornaments in species without sex-role reversal. Despite these empirical findings, little is known about the adaptive dynamics of female signalling, in particular the evolution of male mating preferences. The evolution of traits that signal mate quality is more complex in females than in males because females usually provide the bulk of resources for the developing offspring. Here, we investigate the evolution of male mating preferences using a mathematical model which: (i) specifically accounts for the fact that females must trade-off resources invested in ornaments with reproduction; and (ii) allows male mating preferences to evolve a non-directional shape. The optimal adaptive strategy for males is to develop stabilizing mating preferences for female display traits to avoid females that either invests too many or too few resources in ornamentation. However, the evolutionary stability of this prediction is dependent upon the level of error made by females when allocating resources to either signal or fecundity.

Animals↗