DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Male fitness in a single cell: The evolutionary significance of male reproductive cell morphology

这个项目的目标是了解自然选择如何作用于物种内部和物种之间的雄性生殖细胞特征。进化生物学的一个中心目标是描述物种内部和物种之间特征多样性的来源。在获得配偶方面具有优势的特征通常是高度多样化的。虽然历史上的研究主要集中在奢侈的特征上，比如羽毛或角的大小，但相对较少的研究集中在这些直接与受精有关的特征上。雄性生殖细胞是动物中最多样化的细胞类型，从一些物种的几微米到其他物种的6厘米不等，是雄性繁殖成功的核心。因为所有动物物种的雄性都产生这样的细胞，研究它们为探索选择如何影响进化提供了一个独特的模型，这是动物王国受精的关键特征。该项目的目标将通过结合实地工作、显微镜和新的基因组方法来实现，以确定近2000只蜥蜴的父系关系。我提出的研究将检验一个假设，即物种内部特征选择的强度和方向将反映在物种之间的进化模式中。该项目分为三个目标：1)测试雄性生殖细胞形态及其交配前和交配后选择的相关进化变化；2)测量物种内形态的表型可塑性和适应性后果；3)测量野生种群中形态、数量和质量的选择。所提出的改进（目标3）将允许使用最近开发的基因组方法来构建系谱，在野生棕色变色蜥蜴种群中测量这些性状的选择。总之，这些项目将把微观进化过程与宏观进化模式结合起来，以更好地理解雄性配子的进化。

The goals of this project are to understand how natural selection acts on male reproductive cell characteristics both within and among species. A central aim of evolutionary biology is describing the sources of diversity in traits within and among species. Traits that confer an advantage in securing a mate are often highly diverse. Though historically research has focused on extravagant traits, such as plumage or horn size, relatively little research has focused on such traits directly involved in fertilization. The male reproductive cell is the most diverse cell type among animals, ranging from a few micrometers in some species to 6 cm in length in others, and is central to male reproductive success. Because males of all animal species produce such cells, studying them provides a unique model for exploring how selection shapes the evolution a trait critical for fertilization across the animal kingdom. The project goals will be achieved through a combination of field work, microscopy, and new genomic methods for identifying paternity in a population of nearly two thousand lizards. My proposed studies will test the hypothesis that the strength and direction of selection on traits within a species will be mirrored in patterns of evolution among species. This project is broken into three aims: 1) testing for correlated evolutionary changes between male reproductive cell morphology and proxies for both pre and post-copulatory selection, 2) measuring phenotypic plasticity and fitness consequences of morphology within a species and 3) measuring selection on morphology, quantity and quality in a wild population. The proposed improvement (aim 3), will allow for the measurement of selection on these traits in a wild population of brown anole lizards using recently developed genomic methods for constructing pedigrees. Together, these projects will integrate microevolutionary processes with macroevolutionary patterns to better understand the evolution of the male gamete.