Evolutionary ecology of sex-ratio variation

性别比例变异的进化生态学

• 批准号: 138090-2010
• 负责人: Anholt, Bradley
• 金额: $ 2.91万
• 依托单位: University of Victoria
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=522350
• 关键词: Evolutionary; ecology; sex; ratio; variation

Understanding why sex-ratio is usually equal and predicting when it should deviate from equality is one of the success stories of evolutionary biology. In diploid organisms there is very little variation for sex ratio so the supporting data is almost all observational. The small crustacean copepod Tigriopus californicus has heritable variation for sex ratio and extraordinary wide variation in sex ratio. This makes it ideal to test sex ratio theory experimentally. This animal lives in the splash zone above the high tide line in small pools that frequently dry out. Populations are maintained by frequent dispersal. They are easily maintained in the laboratory and experimental breeding programs are easy to implement.

理解为什么性别比通常是相等的，并预测性别比何时会偏离相等，是进化生物学的成功案例之一。在二倍体生物中，性别比的变化很小，所以支持的数据几乎都是观察到的。小甲壳类桡足动物加利福尼亚虎足的性别比具有遗传变异，且变异范围非常广。这使得实验检验性别比例理论成为理想的选择。这种动物生活在涨潮线以上的水花区，在经常干涸的小池塘里。种群通过频繁的分散得以维持。它们很容易在实验室中维护，实验育种计划也很容易实施。