scholarly journals Evolutionarily stable mating decisions for sequentially searching females and the stability of reproductive isolation by assortative mating

Evolution ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 1015-1026 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadeas Priklopil ◽  
Eva Kisdi ◽  
Mats Gyllenberg
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable

scholarly journals The collapse of genetic incompatibilities in a hybridizing population

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianzhu Xiong ◽  
James L MALLET
Keyword(s):  
Gene Regulation ◽  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Genetic Drift ◽  
Recombination Rate ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Genetic Incompatibility ◽  
Genetic Process ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
The Stability

Genetic incompatibility has long been considered to be a hallmark of speciation due to its role in reproductive isolation. Previous analyses of the stability of epistatic incompatibility show that it is subject to collapse upon hybridization. In the present work, we derive explicitly the distribution of the lifespan of two-locus incompatibilities, and show that genetic drift, along with recombination, is critical in determining the time scale of collapse. The first class of incompatibilities, where derived alleles separated in parental populations act antagonistically in hybrids, survive longer in smaller populations when incompatible alleles are (co)dominant and tightly linked, but collapse more quickly when they are recessive. The second class of incompatibilities, where fitness is reduced by disrupting co-evolved elements in gene regulation systems, collapse on a time scale proportional to the exponential of effective recombination rate. Overall, our result suggests that the effects of genetic drift and recombination on incompatibility's lifespan depend strongly on the underlying mechanisms of incompatibilities. As the time scale of collapse is usually shorter than the time scale of establishing a new incompatibility, the observed level of genetic incompatibilities in a particular hybridizing population may be shaped more by the collapse than by their initial accumulation. Therefore, a joint theory of accumulation-erosion of incompatibilities is in need to fully understand the genetic process under speciation with hybridization.

scholarly journals Spatial swarm segregation and reproductive isolation between the molecular forms of Anopheles gambiae

2009 ◽  
Vol 276 (1676) ◽  
pp. 4215-4222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdoulaye Diabaté ◽  
Adama Dao ◽  
Alpha S. Yaro ◽  
Abdoulaye Adamou ◽  
Rodrigo Gonzalez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Anopheles Gambiae ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Molecular Form ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Spatial Segregation ◽  
Molecular Forms ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Ecological Criteria ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Anopheles gambiae , the major malaria vector in Africa, can be divided into two subgroups based on genetic and ecological criteria. These two subgroups, termed the M and S molecular forms, are believed to be incipient species. Although they display differences in the ecological niches they occupy in the field, they are often sympatric and readily hybridize in the laboratory to produce viable and fertile offspring. Evidence for assortative mating in the field was recently reported, but the underlying mechanisms awaited discovery. We studied swarming behaviour of the molecular forms and investigated the role of swarm segregation in mediating assortative mating. Molecular identification of 1145 males collected from 68 swarms in Donéguébougou, Mali, over 2 years revealed a strict pattern of spatial segregation, resulting in almost exclusively monotypic swarms with respect to molecular form. We found evidence of clustering of swarms composed of individuals of a single molecular form within the village. Tethered M and S females were introduced into natural swarms of the M form to verify the existence of possible mate recognition operating within-swarm. Both M and S females were inseminated regardless of their form under these conditions, suggesting no within-mate recognition. We argue that our results provide evidence that swarm spatial segregation strongly contributes to reproductive isolation between the molecular forms in Mali. However this does not exclude the possibility of additional mate recognition operating across the range distribution of the forms. We discuss the importance of spatial segregation in the context of possible geographic variation in mechanisms of reproductive isolation.

Evolutionarily Stable Strategies

Ecology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Breed
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Interspecific Interactions ◽  
Developmental Time ◽  
Evolutionary Strategies ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable Strategies ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable

Evolutionarily stable strategies (ESS) are phenotypes that persist in populations over evolutionary time and cannot be replaced by invading strategies. Cases in which alternative strategies coexist stand as being of particular interest. Evolutionary biologists were introduced to the concept of ESS through the efforts of John Maynard Smith and George R. Price, whose work remains the keystone expression of this concept. Maynard Smith and Price dealt with animal conflicts, in which combatants may have differing strategies and physical abilities. The stability of evolutionary strategies is often analyzed using the tools of game theory, which allows determination of the persistence of strategies when played against one another. Game theory also opens the door to assessing the potential success of novel strategies upon introduction into a population. ESS often coincide with the Nash equilibrium, a game theory concept that describes conditions under which cognitively aware players in a game cannot gain by changing their individual strategy. In addition to animal conflict, analyses of ESS have been applied in a wide variety of evolutionary contexts and indeed are applicable whenever alternative heritable phenotypes are present. One possibility is that ESS occur as alternative genotypes within populations and thus should be analyzed using population-genetic approaches. ESS can also be conditionally expressed by individuals, depending on environmental and social context. This second option also requires a genotypic basis for strategies but allows for more strategical complexity through responses that may shift over developmental time or with experience. Interspecific interactions are an additional context for ESS, in which ESS drive evolutionary arms races between predators and prey or hosts and diseases or parasites. Maynard Smith and Price built on a conceptual framework in evolutionary ecology developed by William D. Hamilton in studies of kin selection, sex ratios, and herding behavior, and by Geoff Parker, working on sperm competition. ESS offer convenient latticework for thinking about many ecological and evolutionary trade-offs in which organisms balance costs and benefits of potential strategic choices in development and behavior, either in within-generation decision-making or between-generation evolution.

scholarly journals Testing the Role of Habitat Isolation among Ecologically Divergent Gall Wasp Populations

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott P. Egan ◽  
Glen R. Hood ◽  
James R. Ott
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Habitat Preferences ◽  
Habitat Isolation ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Gall Wasp ◽  
Quercus Virginiana ◽  
Respective Host

Habitat isolation occurs when habitat preferences lower the probability of mating between individuals associated with differing habitats. While a potential barrier to gene flow during ecological speciation, the effect of habitat isolation on reproductive isolation has rarely been directly tested. Herein, we first estimated habitat preference for each of six populations of the gall waspBelonocnema treataeinhabiting eitherQuercus virginianaorQ. geminata. We then estimated the importance of habitat isolation in generating reproductive isolation betweenB. treataepopulations that were host specific to eitherQ. virginianaorQ. geminataby measuring mate preference in the presence and absence of the respective host plants. All populations exhibited host preference for their native plant, and assortative mating increased significantly in the presence of the respective host plants. This host-plant-mediated assortative mating demonstrates that habitat isolation likely plays an important role in promoting reproductive isolation among populations of this host-specific gall former.

scholarly journals Assortative flocking in crossbills and implications for ecological speciation

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1745) ◽  
pp. 4223-4229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie W. Smith ◽  
Stephanie M. Sjoberg ◽  
Matthew C. Mueller ◽  
Craig W. Benkman
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Ecological Speciation ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Loxia Curvirostra ◽  
Call Type ◽  
Divergent Natural Selection ◽  
Contact Calls ◽  
Red Crossbills

How reproductive isolation is related to divergent natural selection is a central question in speciation. Here, we focus on several ecologically specialized taxa or ‘call types’ of red crossbills ( Loxia curvirostra complex), one of the few groups of birds providing much evidence for ecological speciation. Call types differ in bill sizes and feeding capabilities, and also differ in vocalizations, such that contact calls provide information on crossbill phenotype. We found that two call types of red crossbills were more likely to approach playbacks of their own call type than those of heterotypics, and that their propensity to approach heterotypics decreased with increasing divergence in bill size. Although call similarity also decreased with increasing divergence in bill size, comparisons of responses to familiar versus unfamiliar call types indicate that the decrease in the propensity to approach heterotypics with increasing divergence in bill size was a learned response, and not a by-product of calls diverging pleiotropically as bill size diverged. Because crossbills choose mates while in flocks, assortative flocking could lead indirectly to assortative mating as a by-product. These patterns of association therefore provide a mechanism by which increasing divergent selection can lead to increasing reproductive isolation.

scholarly journals Sexual selection on color and behavior within and between cichlid populations: Implications for speciation

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Pauers ◽  
Jeffrey S. Mckinnon
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Separate Experiment ◽  
Color Patterns ◽  
Male Behavior ◽  
Female Population ◽  
Different Color

Abstract Sexual selection is widely viewed as playing a central role in haplochromine cichlid speciation. Hypothetically, once divergent mate preferences evolve among populations of these fishes, reproductive isolation follows and the populations begin to behave as different species. Various studies have examined patterns of assortative mating among species and sometimes populations, but few have examined variation in directional preferences, especially among populations of the same species. We investigated mate choice behavior in two populations of Labeotropheus fuelleborni, a Lake Malawi endemic. We test whether mating preferences between populations are based on the same traits and in the same direction as preferences within populations. We examine the potential contributions of two classes of trait, color patterns and behaviors, to reproductive isolation. When females chose between either two males of their own population, or two from another, female preferences were generally similar (for the female population) across the two contexts. Mate choice patterns differed between (female) populations for a measure of color, but only modestly for male behavior. In a separate experiment we simultaneously offered females a male of their own population and a male from a different population. In these trials, females consistently preferred males from their own population, which were also the males that displayed more frequently than their opponents, but not necessarily those with color traits suggested to be most attractive in the previous experiment. Thus directional preferences for chroma and related aspects of color may be important when females are presented with males of otherwise similar phenotypes, but may play little role in mediating assortative mating among populations with substantially different color patterns. A preference for male behavior could play some role in speciation if males preferentially court same-population females, as we have observed for the populations studied herein.

scholarly journals The role of multiple reproductive barriers: strong post-pollination interactions govern cytotype isolation in a tetraploid–octoploid contact zone

2020 ◽  
Vol 126 (6) ◽  
pp. 991-1003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Castro ◽  
João Loureiro ◽  
Brian C Husband ◽  
Sílvia Castro
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Contact Zone ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Reproductive Barriers ◽  
Pollinator Behaviour ◽  
Contact Zones ◽  
Foraging Preferences ◽  
Flowering Asynchrony ◽  
Gametic Selection

Abstract Background and Aims Polyploidy is an important contributor to sympatric speciation and assortative mating is a key mechanism driving cytotype interactions in contact zones. While strong reproductive barriers can mediate the coexistence of different cytotypes in sympatry, positive frequency-dependent mating disadvantage ultimately drives the transition to single-ploidy populations. However, comprehensive estimates of reproductive isolation among cytotypes and across multiple barriers are rare. We quantify the strength of isolation across multiple reproductive stages in a tetraploid–octoploid contact zone to understand the potential for coexistence. Methods Assortative mating due to flowering asynchrony, pollinator behaviour, morphological overlap, self-fertilization and gametic competition between tetraploid and octoploid Gladiolus communis in a contact zone in the Western Iberian Peninsula were assessed in natural and experimental populations to quantify reproductive isolation (RI) between cytotypes. Key Results Tetraploids and octoploids have a high degree of overlap in flowering time and similar floral morphology, and are visited by generalist insects without cytotype foraging preferences, resulting in weak pre-pollination RI (from 0.00 to 0.21). In contrast, post-pollination isolation resulting from gametic selection was a strong barrier to inter-cytotype mating, with ploidy composition in stigmatic pollen loads determining the levels of RI (from 0.54 to 1.00). Between-cytotype cross-incompatibility was relatively high (RI from 0.54 to 0.63) as was isolation acquired through self-pollination (RI of 0.59 in tetraploids and 0.39 in octoploids). Conclusions Total RI was high for both tetraploids (from 0.90 to 1.00) and octoploids (from 0.78 to 0.98). Such high rates of assortative mating will enable cytotype coexistence in mixed-ploidy populations by weakening the impacts of minority cytotype exclusion. This study reveals the key role of gametic selection in cytotype siring success and highlights the importance of comprehensive estimates across multiple reproductive barriers to understand cytotype interactions at contact zones.

Assortative Mating without Complete Reproductive Isolation in a Zone of Recent Secondary Contact between Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) and Caspian Gulls (L. cachinnans)

The Auk ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 409-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Neubauer ◽  
M. Magdalena Zagalska-Neubauer ◽  
Jean-Marc Pons ◽  
Pierre-André Crochet ◽  
Przemysław Chylarecki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Larus Argentatus ◽  
Secondary Contact ◽  
Herring Gulls

Symmetrical and asymmetrical sexual isolation among laboratory strains of Drosophila ananassae

1985 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bashisth N. Singh ◽  
Sujata Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Sexual Isolation ◽  
Drosophila Ananassae ◽  
Isofemale Lines ◽  
Male Choice ◽  
Positive Assortative Mating ◽  
Different Strains ◽  
Assortive Mating

Male-choice experiments using five isofemale lines of Drosophila ananassae originating from different localities were performed to study sexual isolation within the species. In most of the crosses homogamic matings outnumber heterogamic ones, and deviation from randomness is statistically significant in 11 of 20 crosses. This provides evidence for positive assortative mating within D. ananassae. Isolation indices range from −0.057 to 0.555. Eleven positive isolation indices are significantly greater than zero. Both types of sexual isolation, symmetrical and asymmetrical, have been observed among different strains. Thus the present results clearly indicate that the laboratory strains of D. ananassae have developed behavioural reproductive isolation as a result of genetic divergence.Key words: Drosophila, assortive mating, sexual selection, behaviour.

Assortative mating and divergent male courtship behaviours between two cryptic species of nine-spined sticklebacks (genus Pungitius)

Behaviour ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 153 (15) ◽  
pp. 1879-1911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-ichiro Meguro ◽  
Hiroshi Takahashi ◽  
Yoshiyasu Machida ◽  
Hokuto Shirakawa ◽  
Michelle R. Gaither ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Cryptic Species ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Brackish Water ◽  
Courtship Behaviour ◽  
Water Type ◽  
Male Courtship ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Kinematic Analyses

Assortative mating based on ecologically divergent traits is a major driver of speciation among three-spined sticklebacks, however, little is known about reproductive isolation and variations in courtship behaviour among nine-spined sticklebacks. Here we demonstrate assortative mating and divergent courtship behaviours between two cryptic species of nine-spined sticklebacks using no-choice mate trials and kinematic analyses. Strong assortative mating was demonstrated in our tank experiments, highlighting the importance of prezygotic reproductive isolation in these species. Kinematic analyses showed that the freshwater type exhibited aggressive courtship behaviour with frequent ‘Attacking’ and spent more time exhibiting displacement activities. In contrast, the brackish-water type demonstrated a higher frequency of the ‘Zigzag-dance’ and ‘Nest-showing’. Our study highlights the value of nine-spined sticklebacks as a comparative system for the study of speciation and paves the way for future studies on the role of courtship behaviours and assortative mating in the evolution of sticklebacks.

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