SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Mating Preference, Animal”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Correlations between heterozygosity and measures of genetic similarity: implications for understanding mate choice.

There is currently considerable interest in testing the effects of genetic compatibility and heterozygosity on animal mate preferences. Evidence for either effect is rapidly accumulating, although results are not always clear-cut. However, correlations between mating preferences and either genetic similarity or heterozygosity are usually tested independently, and the possibility that similarity and heterozygosity may be confounded has rarely been taken into account. Here we show that measures of genetic similarity (allele sharing, relatedness) may be correlated with heterozygosity, using data from 441 human individuals genotyped at major loci in the major histocompatibility complex, and 281 peafowl (Pavo cristatus) individuals genotyped at 13 microsatellite loci. We show that average levels of allele sharing and relatedness are each significantly associated with heterozygosity in both humans and peafowl, that these relationships are influenced by the level of polymorphism, and that these similarity measures may correlate with heterozygosity in qualitatively different ways. We discuss the implications of these inter-relationships for interpretation of mate choice studies. It has recently become apparent that mating preferences for 'good genes' and 'compatible genes' may introduce discordant choice amongst individuals, since the optimal mate for one trait may not be optimal for the other, and our results are consistent with this idea. The inter-relationship between these measures of genetic quality also carries implications for the way in which mate choice studies are designed and interpreted, and generates predictions that can be tested in future research.

Animals↗

PubMed2025

Latent preference for red ornamentation drives interspecific mating in nascent jumping spider species (Habronattus americanus group, F. Salticidae).

Heterospecific interactions between nascent species offer insights into how sexual selection shapes novel traits, illuminating patterns in species interactions and diversification. We tested female preferences between two recently diverged, allopatric species of jumping spiders: Habronattus americanus PLC, with red-coloured males performing short multimodal displays, and Habronattus sansoni CC, with brown-coloured males performing long multimodal displays. Mate choice experiments showed that females of both species preferred H. americanus PLC males. To examine the role of red coloration, we manipulated male coloration in both species. Results indicated that red-painted H. sansoni CC males experienced an increase in mating success, whereas brown-painted H. americanus PLCmales did not show reduced success. Our study suggests that (i) strong latent female preferences can drive unidirectional introgression across species boundaries, potentially leading to genomic homogenization; (ii) latent preferences may override preferences for existing traits; and (iii) the geographical distribution of colour morphs is consistent with a hypothesis of strong latent preferences across populations. Overall, our study demonstrates the role that mating interactions can play in speciation dynamics.

Animals↗

PubMed2025

Major histocompatibility complex class IIB disassortative mate choice in a genetically monogamous seabird.

Among species reproducing sexually, mating strategies represent a major component of individual fitness. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is an extremely diverse set of genes responsible for immunological recognition and defence against pathogens. Although dissimilarity between mates at the major histocompatibility complex has been proposed to drive mate choice through increased offspring pathogen resistance, evidence is mixed. In addition, explorations of the role of the major histocompatibility complex in other mating strategies, such as divorce, are rare. We investigated whether dissimilarity at the major histocompatibility complex class IIB is associated with mate choice and divorce probability in the genetically monogamous black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla). We found that first-time male breeders, as well as divorced males, were paired with females more dissimilar at the major histocompatibility complex class IIB than expected under random mating. We did not find evidence for mate choice based on major histocompatibility complex class IIB dissimilarity when considering females. In addition, in the studied population, divorce probability was very low compared with other populations and did not significantly vary with the dissimilarity of the pair at the major histocompatibility complex class IIB. Our results pave the way to a better understanding of the complex role of major histocompatibility complex dissimilarity in mating decisions of species displaying mutual choice and biparental care.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Calling is an honest indicator of paternal genetic quality in poison frogs.

Several competing hypotheses have been put forward to explain why females of many species mate preferentially with males possessing the most conspicuous signals (e.g., ornaments, displays, or songs). We performed a laboratory experiment using two species of poison frogs, Dendrobates leucomelas and Epipedobates tricolor, to test the hypothesis that male calling performance is an honest indicator of parental quality. Our analyses are based on data from behavioral observations of mating activities of captive-reared individuals (and their offspring) that were housed in terraria for four consecutive breeding seasons. Male mating success increased with male calling rate and chirp duration in both species, suggesting that females preferred males with more elaborate calls. Because calling performance improved with age in D. leucomelas, female poison frogs that prefer males with more elaborate calls in the wild may end up mating with older males that have already proven their ability to survive. Females that mated with good callers obtained higher quality offspring. Eggs fertilized by males with high calling rates and long chirp durations had higher hatching success and produced tadpoles that were more likely to metamorphose into surviving frogs. As a consequence, females that mated with males with high calling performance obtained more surviving offspring per egg, compared to females that mated with poor callers. Collectively, our findings comply with the notion that female poison frogs prefer to mate with good callers because calling performance is a reliable predictor of offspring quality. The possible influence of maternal allocation and reasons for the strong effect size compared to previous studies are discussed.

Aging↗

PubMed2005

Extrapair mating between relatives in the barn swallow: a role for kin selection?

Why do females of many species mate with more than one male? One of the main hypotheses suggests that female promiscuity is an insurance mechanism against the potential detrimental effects of inbreeding. Accordingly, females should preferably mate with less related males in multiple or extrapair mating. Here we analyse paternity, relatedness among mating partners, and relatedness between parents and offspring, in the socially monogamous North American barn swallow (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster). In contrast to the inbreeding avoidance hypothesis, we found that extrapair mating partners were more related than expected by random choice, and tended to be more related than social partners. Furthermore, extrapair mating resulted in genetic parents being more related to their extrapair young than to their withinpair young. We propose a new hypothesis for extrapair mating based on kin selection theory as a possible explanation to these findings.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Romantic love: a mammalian brain system for mate choice.

Mammals and birds regularly express mate preferences and make mate choices. Data on mate choice among mammals suggest that this behavioural 'attraction system' is associated with dopaminergic reward pathways in the brain. It has been proposed that intense romantic love, a human cross-cultural universal, is a developed form of this attraction system. To begin to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic attraction in humans, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study 17 people who were intensely 'in love'. Activation specific to the beloved occurred in the brainstem right ventral tegmental area and right postero-dorsal body of the caudate nucleus. These and other results suggest that dopaminergic reward and motivation pathways contribute to aspects of romantic love. We also used fMRI to study 15 men and women who had just been rejected in love. Preliminary analysis showed activity specific to the beloved in related regions of the reward system associated with monetary gambling for uncertain large gains and losses, and in regions of the lateral orbitofrontal cortex associated with theory of mind, obsessive/compulsive behaviours and controlling anger. These data contribute to our view that romantic love is one of the three primary brain systems that evolved in avian and mammalian species to direct reproduction. The sex drive evolved to motivate individuals to seek a range of mating partners; attraction evolved to motivate individuals to prefer and pursue specific partners; and attachment evolved to motivate individuals to remain together long enough to complete species-specific parenting duties. These three behavioural repertoires appear to be based on brain systems that are largely distinct yet interrelated, and they interact in specific ways to orchestrate reproduction, using both hormones and monoamines. Romantic attraction in humans and its antecedent in other mammalian species play a primary role: this neural mechanism motivates individuals to focus their courtship energy on specific others, thereby conserving valuable time and metabolic energy, and facilitating mate choice.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Cryptic female choice during spermatophore transfer in Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae).

Sexual selection in both males and females promotes traits and behaviors that allow control over paternity when female mates with multiple males. Nonetheless, mechanisms of cryptic female choice have been consistently overlooked, due to traditional focus on sperm competition as well as difficulty in distinguishing male vs. female influence over processes occurring during and after mating. The first part of this study describes morphology and transformation of Tribolium castaneum spermatophores inferred from dissecting females immediately after normal or interrupted copulations. T. castaneum males are found to transfer spermatophores as an invaginated tube that everts inside the female bursa and which is filled with sperm during copulation. This sequence of events makes it feasible for females to control the sperm quantity transferred in each spermatophore. Through manipulation of the male phenotypic quality (by starvation) and manipulation of female control over sperm transfer (by killing a subset of females), the second part of this study examines whether females use control over transferred sperm quantity as a cryptic choice mechanism. Fed males transferred significantly more sperm per spermatophore than starved males but only when mating with live females. These results suggest an active differentiation by live females against starved males and provide an evidence for the proposed cryptic female choice mechanism.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Density-dependent sexual selection in external fertilizers: variances in male and female fertilization success along the continuum from sperm limitation to sexual conflict in the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus franciscanus.

Sperm competition and female choice are fundamentally driven by gender differences in investment per offspring and are often manifested as differences in variance in reproductive success: males compete and have high variance; most females are mated and have low variance. In marine organisms that broadcast spawn, however, females may encounter either sperm limitation or sperm competition. I measured the fertilization success of male and female Strongylocentrotus franciscanus over a range of population densities using microsatellite markers. Female fertilization success first increased and then decreased with mate density, limited at low density by sperm limitation and at high density by polyspermy. Mate density affected variance in fertilization success in both males and females. In males, the variance in fertilization success increased with mate density. In females, the pattern was more complex. The variance in female success increased similarly to males with increased mate density but then decreased to low levels at intermediate densities, where almost all eggs were fertilized. As density increased further, the female variances again increased as polyspermy lowered average fertilization success. Male and female variances differed only at intermediate densities. At low densities, both sexes may be under selection to increase fertilization success; at intermediate densities, males may compete; and at high densities, both sexes may be under selection to increase success by increasing (males) or decreasing (females) likelihood of fertilization during sexual conflict. Only within a narrow range of densities do patterns of sexual selection mirror those typically noted in internally fertilizing taxa.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

No evidence of current sexual selection on sexually dimorphic traits in a bird with high variance in mating success.

Sexual dimorphism, particularly in ornamental traits, is likely to have arisen by sexual selection. Most empirical and theoretical studies of sexual dimorphism assume that ongoing sexual selection also maintains the dimorphism. Over four seasons, I measured the sexual selection acting on three sexually dimorphic attributes (epaulet size, body size, and the blackness of the body plumage) of male red-winged blackbirds and found no consistent directional or stabilizing selection on any of them. Correlational selection was also negligible. I used path analysis to explore potential relationships in more detail but found no direct or indirect effects of male traits on either within- or extrapair success. Males who were resident on the marsh for more years had higher within-pair success, primarily because they spent more of the season on their territory. Experimental manipulations of epaulet size and color and the extent of nonblack feathers in the black body plumage had no detectable effect on the number of within-pair mates, paternity, or the number of extrapair offspring sired in nearby territories. These results combine with data from other studies of red-winged blackbirds to suggest that, despite high variation in male mating success and hence a strong opportunity for sexual selection, several morphological attributes that differ between the sexes and vary among males are not under current sexual selection. The possible explanations for why add complexity to our understanding of how sexual selection operates.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Economy of mate attraction in the Cassin's finch.

Mate attraction can be costly. Thus, individuals should modulate it according to its probable benefits. Specifically, individuals should modulate mate-attraction efforts based on their need for, the probability of attracting, and the reproductive competence of prospective mates. We tested these predictions by monitoring song output in laboratory-housed male Cassin's finches (Carpodacus cassinii) before, during and after brief female exposure following variable periods of isolation from females. We inferred individual reproductive competence from the product of season and reproductive schedule, the latter estimated from moult progress. Males produced little song in the presence of a female but robustly elevated song output in response to female loss. However, mere absence of a female did not elevate song output in males unaccustomed to female proximity. Furthermore, song output in response to female loss increased with her reproductive competence. We suggest that individuals modulate mate-attraction effort based on the benefits such efforts are likely to yield.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Reversible switches between male-male and male-female mating behaviour by male damselflies.

For many animal groups, both sexes have been reported to attempt to mate with members of their own sex. Such behaviour challenges theories of sexual selection, which predict optimization of reproductive success. We tested male mate choice between opposite- and same-sex members in the damselfly Ischnura elegans. Binary choice experiments were conducted following exposure periods in insectaries with only males or with both sexes present. We show that switches in choice between the opposite sex and the same sex can be induced and reversed again by changing the social context. We argue that the observed reversibility in male-male- and male-female-directed mating behaviour is maladaptive and a consequence of strong selection on a male's ability to alter choice between different female colour morphs.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Positive assortative mating between recently described sympatric morphs of Icelandic sticklebacks.

Recently, models of sympatric speciation have suggested that assortative mating can develop between sympatric morphs due to divergence in an ecologically important character. For example, in sympatric pairs of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.) size-assortative mating seems to be instrumental in reproductive isolation. Here, we examine courtship behaviour and assortative mating of newly described sympatric stickleback morphs in Lake Thingvallavatn, Iceland. We find that the two morphs show strong positive assortative mating. However, the mechanism involved in mate choice does not seem to be as straightforward as in other similar systems of sympatric stickleback morphs and may involve variation in nest type.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

The role of model female quality in the mate choice copying behaviour of sailfin mollies.

Female mate choice copying is a socially mediated mate choice behaviour, in which a male's attractiveness to females increases if he was previously chosen by another female as a mate. Although copying has been demonstrated in numerous species, little is known about the specific benefits it confers to copying females. Here we demonstrate that the mate choice behaviour of female sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna) is influenced by the phenotypic quality of model females with whom males are observed consorting. Test females choosing between two males of similar body length were found to significantly increase time spent with previously non-preferred males after having observed them with a relatively high-quality female. Conversely, females were found to significantly decrease time spent with previously preferred males after having observed them with a relatively low-quality female. Female mate choice copying might be maintained by selection based on the heuristic value it provides females choosing between males whose quality differences are not easily distinguishable.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Bilateral damage to the sexually dimorphic medial preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus of male ferrets causes a female-typical preference for and a hypothalamic Fos response to male body odors.

Previous studies showed that bilateral lesions of the male ferret's preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus (POA/AH), centered in the sexually dimorphic nuclei present in this region, caused subjects to seek out a same-sex male, as opposed to a female conspecific. Male subjects with POA/AH lesions (which were also castrated and given estradiol) displayed female-typical receptive behavior in response to neck gripping by a stimulus male, implying that subjects' approaches to a same-sex conspecific were sexually motivated. We asked whether the effect of POA/AH lesions on males' partner preference reflects a shift in the central processing of body odorant cues so that males come to display a female-typical preference to approach male body odorants. Sexually experienced male ferrets in which electrolytic lesions of the POA/AH caused bilateral damage to the sexually dimorphic male nucleus (MN) resembled sham-operated females by preferring to approach body odors emitted from anesthetized male as opposed to female stimulus ferrets confined in the goal boxes of a Y-maze. This lesion-induced shift in odor preference was correlated with a significant increase in the ability of soiled male bedding to induce a Fos response in the medial POA of males with bilateral damage to the MN-POA/AH. No such partner preference or neural Fos responses were seen in sham-operated males or in other groups of males with POA/AH lesions that either caused unilateral damage or no damage to the MN-POA/AH. Male-typical hypothalamic processing of conspecifics' body odorants may determine males' normal preference to seek out odors emitted by female conspecifics, leading to mating and successful reproduction.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2005

Female mate choice as a condition-dependent life-history trait.

The acquisition of resources is an important determinant of patterns of variation in and covariation among traits that are costly to produce and are dependent on condition for their expression. However, the extent to which variation in female mate choice behavior is condition dependent, and how this is related to other life-history traits, remains largely unknown. We manipulated the acquisition of dietary protein in the black field cricket, Teleogryllus commodus, and measured the effects of this on several important life-history traits and on female mate choice behavior. Females reared on a high-protein diet developed faster, were heavier at eclosion, and lived longer than females reared on a low-protein diet. Two lines of evidence suggest that female mate choice behavior in T. commodus is condition dependent. First, females reared on the high-protein diet were more sexually responsive and expressed stronger linear and quadratic preference functions for call rate and dominant frequency, respectively. Second, within treatments, females that developed faster were lighter, generally less sexually responsive, and, in the high-protein-diet treatment, expressed weaker preferences than slower-developing females. Collectively, our findings suggest an important role for resource acquisition in generating variation in mate choice behavior.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Larger swordtail females prefer asymmetrical males.

Many organisms, including humans, find symmetry more attractive than asymmetry. Is this bias towards symmetry simply a by-product of their detection system? We examined female preference for symmetry of the pigment pattern vertical bars in the swordtail fishes Xiphophorus cortezi and Xiphophorus malinche. We found a relationship between preference for symmetry and female size, with larger and thus older females spending significantly more time with the asymmetrical video animation as compared to the symmetrical video animation. The preference for asymmetry we report demonstrates that even if females can detect symmetrical males better, this does not preclude subsequent selection on females to prefer symmetrical or asymmetrical males. In addition, because the preference was correlated with female size, past studies may have missed preference for either asymmetry and/or symmetry by not examining the relationship between female preference and size/age or by measuring a limited size/age distribution of females. In both of the species of swordtail fishes examined, a high proportion of males are asymmetrical by more than one bar. We suggest that female preference may be maintaining fluctuating asymmetries in these fishes.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Evolutionary genetics: evolution of mate choice in the wild.

Qvarnström et al. test whether the preference of female collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis) for males with large forehead patches could have evolved as a by-product of selection acting on male patch size. They find that the crucial genetic correlation between female choice and male patch size is not significant, and conclude that preference for large patches must have been shaped directly by selection. However, their use of the patch size of a female's social partner as a measure of choice is incomplete, and will result in low estimates of the potential for direct selection to shape female preference. Their study is therefore unable to resolve the question of how female preference for large forehead patches has evolved.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Male mate choice and sperm allocation in a sexual/asexual mating complex of Poecilia (Poeciliidae, Teleostei).

Male mate choice is critical for understanding the evolution and maintenance of sexual/asexual mating complexes involving sperm-dependent, gynogenetic species. Amazon mollies (Poecilia formosa) require sperm to trigger embryogenesis, but the males (e.g. Poecilia mexicana) do not contribute genes. Males benefit from mating with Amazon mollies, because such matings make males more attractive to conspecific females, but they might control the cost of such matings by providing less sperm to Amazon mollies. We examined this at the behavioural and sperm levels. P. mexicana males preferred to mate with, and transferred more sperm to conspecific females. However, if males mated with P. formosa, sperm was readily transferred. This underscores the importance of male choice in this system.

Animals↗