DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Sex-specific effects on postcopulatory sexual selection and sexual conflict in a sex-role reversed pipefish

雄性怀孕发生在海龙科鱼类，一组包括海龙，海马和海龙。 雌性将卵产给它们的配偶，雄性将发育中的后代携带在一个类似胎盘的结构中，称为育儿袋。 研究人员最近表明，在海湾海龙中，怀孕期间使用的雄性资源是不同的，更多的资源用于有吸引力的雌性的育雏。 这些结果引发了许多有关这种现象背后机制的问题，这些问题将在本项目中得到解决。 通过繁殖实验研究了雄性和雌性对海湾海龙后代存活率的影响，并探讨了雄性交配前的择偶偏好和交配后的资源投资之间的相互作用。 后代的生存率预计将主要由男性和男性的配偶质量的感知是用来调整资源投资后代的线索。 通过利用性别角色颠倒的物种，其中女性竞争交配的男性，性选择理论，这在很大程度上是在物种与正常的性别角色，将测试的基本原则。 这个项目的结果将提供一个深入的了解交配前和交配后的性选择在复杂性状的进化，如男性怀孕的相对作用。 该项目将涉及大学生和小学生，以及与达拉斯世界水族馆合作，以促进公众对海龙类鱼类科学研究的认识。

Male pregnancy occurs in syngnathid fishes, a group that includes sea dragons, seahorses, and pipefishes. Females give eggs to their mates and males carry the developing offspring in a placenta-like structure called the brood pouch. The investigators recently showed that, in the Gulf pipefish, the male resources used during pregnancy are differentially invested, with more resources devoted to broods from attractive females. These results raise many questions regarding the mechanism underlying this phenomenon, which will be addressed in this project. Breeding experiments will be conducted to investigate male and female effects on offspring survivorship in the Gulf pipefish and to explore the interaction between pre-mating mate preference and post-mating resource investment by males. Offspring survivorship is expected to be determined mainly by males and that male perception of mate quality is the cue used to adjust resource investment in progeny. By utilizing a sex-role reversed species, in which females compete for mating access to males, basic principles of sexual selection theory, which has largely been developed in species with normal sex roles, will be tested. The results of this project will provide an in-depth understanding of the relative roles of pre- and post-mating sexual selection in the evolution of complex traits, such as male pregnancy. The project will involve undergraduates and outreach to elementary school children, as well as a collaboration with the Dallas World Aquarium to promote public awareness of scientific research on syngnathid fishes.