U.S.-Canada Colloborative Research: Dissecting behavioral isolation in nature: mate choice and the among-population divergence of signal traits and mate preferences

在这个国际合作项目中，来自美国和加拿大的研究人员将进行实验，研究表皮层碳氢化合物(CHC)在物种识别和维持两个密切相关的食用菌苍蝇物种之间的边界方面的作用。雄性接触性信息素由一套CHC组成，初步数据表明，这两个物种的信息素不同。我们将寻求三个具体目标来检验这一假设，即雄性CHC是雌性在选择配偶时使用的关键信号特征，是物种歧视的基础，以及这些特征和对它们的雌性偏好在不同种群之间存在差异，以响应其他物种的存在而产生的加强选择。这些研究的结果将为一项长期合作研究计划奠定基础，该计划将阐明行为差异如何产生生殖隔离并最终形成物种。对男性信号和女性偏好的了解将为假设提供信息，即物种内和物种之间女性歧视的遗传基础是否相同，以及我们预期这些特征在遗传水平上是多么简单和复杂。雌性歧视的遗传基础和物种分化的进化基因组学可能更普遍地适用于理解生殖隔离的行为、生态和遗传学。数据资源将向社区提供。该项目将为美国和加拿大的早期职业研究人员之间的长期合作提供机会，并将涉及对两个实验室的学生进行培训，包括妇女和少数民族。初级研究人员，特别是来自科学界代表性不足的群体的初级研究人员参与合作的国际活动是OISE的一个主要目标。

In this international collaborative project researchers from U.S. and Canada will perform experiments to study the role of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC) in species recognition and the maintenance of boundaries between two closely related species of mushroom-feeding flies, Drosophila subquinaria and Drosophila recens. Male contact pheromones consist of a suite of CHCs, and preliminary data suggests that these differ between the two species. Three specific aims will be pursued to test the hypothesis that male CHCs are the key signal traits that are used by females during mate choice and that underlie species discrimination, and that these traits and the female preferences for them have diverged among populations in response to reinforcing selection generated by the presence of the other species. The results of these studies will lay the groundwork for a long-term collaborative research program that will shed light on how behaviors diverge to generate reproductive isolation and ultimately speciation.Knowledge of the male signals and female preferences will inform hypotheses about whether the genetic basis of within vs. between species female discrimination is the same, and how simple vs. complex we expect these traits to be at the genetic level. The genetic basis of female discrimination and evolutionary genomics of species differentiation in these fly species might be more generally applicable to an understanding of the behavior, ecology, and genetics of reproductive isolation. The data resources will be made available to the community. This project will provide the opportunity to develop a long-term collaboration between early career researchers in the U.S. and Canada and will involve training of students in both laboratories, including women and ethnic minorities. Involvement of junior researchers, especially from groups underrepresented in science, in collaborative international activities is a major goal of OISE.