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

该项目的目标是了解自然选择如何影响物种内和物种间的男性生殖细胞特征。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。尽管历史上的研究一直集中在羽毛或角大小等奢侈的特征上，但相对较少的研究集中在直接与受精有关的这些特征上。雄性生殖细胞是动物中最多样的细胞类型，有些物种的长度从几微米到另一些物种的6厘米长，是男性生殖成功的关键。因为所有动物物种的雄性都会产生这样的细胞，所以对它们的研究为探索选择如何塑造进化提供了一个独特的模型，而进化是整个动物界受精的关键特征。该项目的目标将通过田野工作、显微镜和新的基因组方法相结合来实现，以识别近2000只蜥蜴的亲子关系。我提议的研究将检验这样一个假设，即一个物种内特征的选择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与交配前和交配后选择指标之间的相关进化变化，2)测量物种内形态的表型可塑性和适合性结果，3)测量野生种群中形态、数量和质量的选择。拟议的改进(目标3)将允许使用最近开发的构建家系的基因组方法来测量野生棕色变态蜥蜴群体中这些特征的选择。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.