Symposium on Parasites and Sexual Selection; Thousand Oaks, California; December 1988

这次为期一天的研讨会的目标是将一个不同的、多学科的科学家小组聚集在一起，他们都在积极研究寄生虫感染作为性选择的驱动力所起的作用。“性选择”这个术语被生物学家用来指代由于一种性别的成员之间争夺配偶而导致的基因频率的变化。具体地说，将在这次研讨会上提出的研究旨在评估在配偶选择过程中评估的个体特征之间的差异在多大程度上准确地反映了这些相同个体在对寄生虫感染和疾病的抵抗力方面的差异。众所周知，性选择在塑造包括人类在内的多种脊椎动物的生理、形态和行为方面非常重要；因此，这一非常基本的遗传过程本身就具有相当大的兴趣。然而，将在这次研讨会上介绍的研究也可能有助于我们了解其他同样重要的遗传和行为过程，特别是影响寄生虫和疾病在人和动物之间传播(和控制)的过程。因此，从人类福利的角度来看，拟议的研讨会的价值可能在于它对流行病学与人口遗传学和行为生态学密切相关的学科之间的新兴综合做出了贡献。拟议的研讨会将与美国动物学家协会(ASZ)1988年的会议一起举行，并将为参与性选择研究的行为生态学家提供第一次机会，与寄生虫学家和其他了解宿主-寄生虫共同进化的科学家互动。预计研讨会上发表的论文将发表在美国动物学家杂志或其他适当的渠道上，从而使更多的听众能够了解研讨会的成果，而不仅仅是那些参加1988年ASZ会议的个人。

The goal of this one-day symposium is to bring together a diverse and multidisciplinary group of scientists, all of whom are actively investigating the role of parasite infection as a driving force in sexual selection. 'Sexual selection' is the term used by biologists to refer to changes in gene frequencies resulting from competition among members of one sex for mates. Specifically, research to be presented in this symposium is aimed at assessing the extent to which variation among individual traits evaluated during mate choice accurately reflects variation among those same individuals in resistance to parasite infection and disease. Sexual selection is known to have been of great importance in shaping the physiology, morphology and behavior of a wide range of vertebrate species, including humans; hence this very basic genetic process is of considerable interest in its own right. However, the research to be presented in this symposium is also likely to contribute to our understanding of other equally important genetic and behavioral process, most especially processes affecting the transmission (and control) of parasites and disease among both humans and animals. Hence, from the standpoint of human welfare the value of the proposed symposium may lie in its contribution to the emerging synthesis of epidemiology with the closely-related disciplines of population genetics and behavioral ecology. The proposed symposium will be held in conjunction with the 1988 meetings of the American Society of Zoologists (ASZ) and will provide the first opportunity for behavioral ecologists involved in research on sexual selection to interact with parasitologists and other scientists knowledgeable about host- parasite coevolution. It is anticipated that papers presented in the symposium will be published in the American Zoologist or other appropriate outlet, thereby making results of the symposium accessible to a larger audience than simply those individuals attending the 1988 ASZ meetings.