Female mating preferences determine systemlevel e

Authors: Janna L Fierst

Publish Date: 2013/04/13

Volume: 141, Issue: 4-6, Pages: 157-170

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Abstract

Environmental patterns of directional stabilizing and fluctuating selection can influence the evolution of systemlevel properties like evolvability and mutational robustness Intersexual selection produces strong phenotypic selection and these dynamics may also affect the response to mutation and the potential for future adaptation In order to to assess the influence of mating preferences on these evolutionary properties I modeled a male trait and female preference determined by separate gene regulatory networks I studied three sexual selection scenarios sexual conflict a Gaussian model of the Fisher process described in Lande in Proc Natl Acad Sci 7863721–3725 1981 and a good genes model in which the male trait signalled his mutational condition I measured the effects these mating preferences had on the potential for traits and preferences to evolve towards new states and mutational robustness of both the phenotype and the individual’s overall viability All types of sexual selection increased male phenotypic robustness relative to a randomly mating population The Fisher model also reduced male evolvability and mutational robustness for viability Under good genes sexual selection males evolved an increased mutational robustness for viability Females choosing their mates is a scenario that is sufficient to create selective forces that impact genetic evolution and shape the evolutionary response to mutation and environmental selection These dynamics will inevitably develop in any population where sexual selection is operating and affect the potential for future adaptationI would like to thank my advisors Thomas F Hansen and David Houle for helpful comments and feedback This work was supposed by a Liev Eiriksson Mobility Grant from the Norwegian Research Council and a US NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biological Informatics

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