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

在一些物种中，雄性表现出的特征可能会向潜在的雌性配偶提供有关其质量的信息，这些特征的变异促使雌性选择或避免这些雄性作为配偶。这项研究调查了野生非人类灵长类雄性动物的季节性脂肪增加是否与它们的生殖成功有关。这个项目促进了我们对非人类灵长类近亲的生理和社会性进化的了解。该项目还通过向第一代学生、低收入学生和西班牙裔服务机构的有色人种学生等历史上代表性不足的群体提供指导性研究，促进妇女和代表性不足的少数群体参与STEM。本科生致力于收集和分析实地数据，并协助项目成果的传播。该项目为这些学生提供了有指导的研究和实地体验，为这些学生提供了独特的培训机会，并通过教育外展在地方层面上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类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，为性别选择提供了新的见解。研究小组整合了在现场收集的行为数据和实验室使用的分子方法，以检查季节性男性脂肪增加的个体变异的生殖后果，并测试这种变异是否与主要组织相容性复合体(MHC)基因的变异有关。具体地说，该项目确定了亲子关系，并使用行为和遗传数据来评估男性育肥是女性选择的结果，因此是一个遗传质量标记的诚实指示器，还是男性与男性竞争的产物，因此与男性MHC多样性脱钩。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.