RUI: Collaborative Research: Signals of genetic quality and mate choice

在某些物种中，雄性表现出的特征可能会向潜在的雌性伴侣提供有关其质量的信息，而这些特征的变化会驱使雌性选择或避免这些雄性作为伴侣。本研究探讨了野生非人灵长类雄性动物的季节性脂肪增加是否与它们的繁殖成功有关。这个项目推进了我们的非人类灵长类亲戚的生理和社会性进化的知识。该项目还通过向历史上代表性不足的群体（如第一代学生、低收入学生和西班牙裔服务机构的有色人种学生）提供指导研究，促进女性和代表性不足的少数族裔参与STEM。本科生的工作是收集和分析实地数据，并协助项目结果的传播。该项目为这些学生提供指导研究和实地体验，以及独特的培训机会，并通过教育推广在当地开展活动，支持野生灵长类动物及其栖息地的保护。这项工作通过研究野生非人灵长类动物的配偶质量信号、遗传质量测量和配偶选择之间的关系，为性选择提供了新的见解。研究小组将野外收集的行为数据和实验室使用的分子方法结合起来，研究季节性雄性脂肪增加的个体差异对生殖的影响，并测试这种差异是否与主要组织相容性复合体（MHC）基因的差异有关。具体来说，该项目确定了亲子关系，并使用行为和遗传数据来评估雄性肥胖是雌性选择的产物，因此是一种遗传质量标记的诚实指标，还是雄性竞争的产物，因此与雄性MHC多样性分离。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In some species, males display traits that may provide information about their quality to potential female mates, and variation in those traits drives females to choose or avoid those males as mates. This study examines whether seasonal fat increase in wild nonhuman primate males is related to their reproductive success. This project advances knowledge about the evolution of physiology and sociality in our nonhuman primate relatives. This project also fosters the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM by providing mentored research to historically underrepresented groups such as first-generation students, low-income students, and students of color at Hispanic Serving Institutions. Undergraduate students work to collect and analyze field data and assist in the dissemination of the project findings. This project provides mentored research and field-based experiences, unique training opportunities for these students, and supports conservation of wild primates and their habitats through activities at the local level through educational outreach.This work provides new insight into sexual selection by examining the relationships among signals of mate quality, a measurement of genetic quality, and mate choice in a wild nonhuman primate. The research team integrate behavioral data collected in the field and molecular methods used in the laboratory to examine the reproductive consequences of individual variation in seasonal male fat increase, and test whether this variation is related to variation in Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes. Specifically, this project determines parent-offspring relationships and uses behavioral and genetic data to assess whether male fattening is a product of female choice, and thus an honest indicator of one marker of genetic quality, or a product of male-male competition and therefore decoupled from male MHC diversity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.