Isolating Mechanisms in Species of Coenagrionid Odonates

了解交配决定的进化对于理解通过性选择创造新物种的机制至关重要。本基金提出的研究将使用共聚焦显微镜来量化豆娘雄性和雌性结构在配偶选择中的对接模式，行为实验来确定当同一物种的雄性以不同的频率被保持时交配偏好的持久性，并确定自然杂交发生的程度。最终，新物种的出现是因为雌性进化出了包括一些雄性而排斥其他雄性的交配偏好——这就是生物物种概念的定义。这些研究检验了有关繁殖系统特性的基本假设，这些特性决定了这些交配决定的进化，以及物种相互作用对这些反应的重要性。这些研究也对雌性如何区分雄性以加强物种的遗传完整性以及这些机制与物种形成的关系提供了基本的见解。此外，结合过去的系统发育和生态学研究，这些实验将全面描绘过去1000万至1500万年间木豆娘的适应和多样化。提议的活动的更广泛的影响是吸引本科生参与科研事业的所有组成部分，并为当地K-12学校的科学课程做出贡献。

Understanding the evolution of mating decisions is crucial to understanding the mechanisms that have created new species by sexual selection. The studies proposed in this grant will use confocal microscopy to quantify the docking patterns of damselfly male and female structures in mate choice, behavioral experiments to determine the persistence of mating preferences when males of the same species are held at different frequencies, and determine the degree to which natural hybridization occurs in nature. Ultimately new species come into existence because females develop mating preferences that include some males and exclude others - this is the definition of the Biological Species Concept. These studies test fundamental assumptions about the properties of breeding systems that shape the evolution of these mating decisions and the importance of species interactions to those responses. These studies also give fundamental insights into how females discriminate among males to enforce the genetic integrity of species and thus the relationship of these mechanisms to speciation. Moreover, taken with past phylogenetic and ecological studies, these experiments will give a comprehensive picture of the adaptation and diversification of the Enallagma damselflies over the past 10-15 million years. The broader impacts of the proposed activity are to engage undergraduates in all components of the scientific research enterprise, and to contribute to the scientific curriculum of local K-12 schools.