Testing models of selection with data on behavioral isolation

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。进化生物学家已经开发了许多数学模型来理解由伴侣偏好引起的特征选择过程。然而，缺乏可用于区分这些模型的测试，部分原因是这些模型的某些方面难以直接测量。该项目将开发一种新技术，通过将替代模型的预测与相关物种之间行为（或生殖）隔离的数据进行比较，来测试由伴侣偏好产生的选择模型。该技术将通过应用最大似然的统计方法和利用物种间进化关系的知识来扩展现有数据的力量。研究人员将用三个不同群体（蝾螈、鱼类和苍蝇）的现有数据集测试替代模型。然而，所开发的分析框架将适用于任何一组关于行为孤立的数据和广泛的替代模型。研究人员将制作用于进行在线分析的软件，扩展现有的网站以说明替代模型，并在科学会议上举办关于这些方法的研讨会。该项目的这些组成部分将提供对经验研究人员之间选择模型的更好理解，并允许他们根据自己感兴趣的生物体的数据测试替代模型。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Evolutionary biologists have developed a number of mathematical models to understand the process of selection on traits that arises from partner preferences. However, tests that can be used to discriminate among these models are lacking, in part because some aspects of the models are difficult to measure directly. This project will develop a novel technique for testing models of selection that result from partner preferences by comparing the predictions of alternative models with data on behavioral (or reproductive) isolation between related species. The technique will extend the power of existing data by applying the statistical approach of maximum likelihood and by using knowledge about the evolutionary relationships among the species. The investigators will test alternative models with available data sets for three divergent groups (salamanders, fishes, and flies). However, the analytical framework developed will be applicable to any set of data on behavioral isolation and for a wide range of alternative models. The investigators will make software to conduct the analysis available online, extend an existing website to illustrate alternative models and conduct a workshop on the methods at a scientific meeting. These components of the project will both provide a better understanding of selection models among empirical researchers and allow them to test alternative models on data from their own organisms of interest.