The dynamics of sexual selection on gametes in a broadcast spawner

该项目旨在开发在配子水平上理解性选择的综合方法。它将使用一种新的、高度通用的模型系统-蓝色贻贝-来寻求对多变量选择目标如何射精的洞察，选择的动态性质，以及卵子和精子之间的化学交流在调节这些过程中可能扮演的角色。将使用一系列跨学科的方法来揭示这些模式及其背后的机制。通过专注于展示广播产卵的祖先繁殖策略的物种，这项工作将有助于理解生殖生物学中的主要进化转变。

This project aims to develop integrated approaches for understanding sexual selection at the level of the gamete. It will use a new and highly versatile model system - the blue mussel - to seek insights into how multivariate selection targets ejaculates, the dynamic nature of selection, and the putative role that chemical communication between eggs and sperm plays in mediating these processes. A range of interdisciplinary approaches will be used to uncover these patterns, and the mechanisms underlying them. By focusing on a species exhibiting the ancestral reproductive strategy of broadcast spawning, the work will contribute to an understanding of major evolutionary transitions in reproductive biology.