Artificial Selection for Spectral Sensitivity and its Effects in Poecilia reticulata

小行星9508198 是什么造成了动物的形状、大小和颜色模式的巨大差异？ 通过分析已知功能的性状，探索结构、功能和适合度之间的理论和实验关系，我们可以开始理解为什么所需的功能不同，为什么物种之间的结构也不同。 一个特别好的模型系统是视觉和颜色模式的遗传学，这对视觉导向的物种至关重要。 动物颜色图案的外观、感知和有用性取决于光环境的光谱组成、每个图案元素的反射光谱和观察者眼中的锥状色素的相互作用。 视觉环境或视觉参数的任何变化都应该以可预测的方式影响感知，从而影响健身。 Endler博士建议通过一个广泛的人工选择实验来检查感觉偏差的影响，该实验将选择改变的视觉，并检查这在Poecilia reticulata中的可能影响。 他还将进行一个半自然的实验，其中视觉条件和捕食将独立变化。 从选择的观点来看，这些问题既有趣又重要，而且对物种的起源和维持也有重要的意义。 保护濒危物种的努力通常集中在生态因素，如最小可行的人口规模，遗传因素，如有效的人口规模，和未知的因素，包括在努力向一般栖息地保护。 然而，如果我们不了解一个物种是如何维持自己的，我们就不能指望无限期地保护它。 这项工作将具体探讨物种识别，并将量化（1）通过直接人工选择视觉参数来改变视觉感知，以及（2）改变视觉环境。 由于本研究是以理想的模型系统来检验一般原理，其结果应具有广泛的普遍应用性。

9508198 ENDLER What generates the great diversity of shapes, sizes, and color patterns in animals? Through the analysis of traits with known function, and explorations of the theoretical and experimental relationship between structure, function, and fitness, we can begin to understand why required functions differ and why structures also differ among species. A particularly good model system is the genetics of vision and of color patterns, which are essential to visually oriented species. The appearance, perception and usefulness of an animal's color pattern depend upon interactions of the spectral composition of the light environment, the reflectance spectra of each pattern element, and the cone pigments in the viewers' eye. Any changes in the visual environment or visual parameters should affect perception and hence fitness in a predictable way. Dr. Endler proposes to examine the effects of sensory biases by means of an extensive artificial selection experiment that will select for altered vision, and examine the possible effects of this in Poecilia reticulata. He will also run a semi-natural experiment in which visual conditions and predation will be varied independently. These questions are interesting and important from the viewpoint of selection, and also have important implications for the origin and maintenance of species. Efforts to conserve and protect endangered species usually concentrate on ecological factors such as minimum viable population size, genetic factors such as effective population size, and unknown factors encompassed in efforts toward general habitat protection. However, if we do not understand how a species maintains itself we cannot hope to protect it indefinitely. The proposed work specifically inquires into species recognition, and will quantify (1) changing visual perception by direct artificial selection on visual parameters, and (2) changing the visual environment. Because the research tests general principles with an ideal model system, the results should be of wide general application.