Mating Preference Evolution: A Nutritional Ecology Approach

寻找配偶的代价可能很高，因为这会让雌性暴露在捕食者面前，并占用其他任务的时间。我的主要研究目标是理解为什么面对这些成本，配偶偏好会发生变化。大多数间接健康益处假说表明，交配偏好的演变是因为精致的特征反映了更大的后代存活率或繁殖成功(好基因)。 项目1通过评估营养如何影响与表现特征变化相关的生理和认知基础，奠定了测试第二性征与条件相关的理论所需的基础。能量储存差异、肌肉代谢能力或代谢率导致的生理能力差异可能是条件变化的基础，因此我将量化营养如何影响生理和代谢性能，以及对精心设计的特征和偏好的相应影响。或者，情况的变化可能是由于个体收集、保存和使用信息的方式不同造成的，所以我将量化营养如何影响认知表现，以及对精心设计的特征和偏好的相应影响。这些实验将共同回答“什么是条件？” 项目2需要详细描述特征并量化特征精化是否影响生存(项目2)。我还将测试女性从与首选配偶交配中获得间接健康益处的预测(项目3)。使用重复的交配比赛，我会根据雌性对它们的偏好程度对雄性进行排名，然后将雌性与最受欢迎和最不受欢迎的雄性进行交配。我将测试最喜欢的雄性和最不喜欢的雄性在精细特征上的不同，以及最喜欢的雄性的后代是否比最不喜欢的雄性的后代有更高的生存能力，产生更复杂的特征，有更强的偏好，更多的生殖力，以及更高的存活率。项目3还将使我能够区分由于基因和环境造成的差异，并测试环境诱导的条件变化是否可以从父亲遗传给后代。 通过整合行为学、生态学、生理学、心理学、进化论和遗传学的方法，我的研究计划将帮助生物学家了解交配偏好的演变，以及如何在赋予健康的特征中保持变异。

Finding a mate can be costly as it exposes females to predators and takes time away from other tasks. Understanding why mate preferences have evolved in the face of these costs is my primary research goal. Most indirect-fitness benefits hypotheses suggest mating preferences evolve because elaborate traits reflect greater offspring survival or reproductive success (good genes). Project 1 lays the foundation required to test the theory that secondary sexual traits are linked to condition by assessing how nutrition influences the physiological and cognitive foundations associated with performance trait variation. Differences in physiological capacity resulting from energy store disparities, muscle metabolic capacity, or metabolic rate may underlie variation in condition, so I will quantify how nutrition impacts physiological and metabolic performance and the corresponding impact on elaborate traits and preferences. Alternatively, variation in condition may result from differences in how individuals collect, retain and use information, so I will quantify how nutrition impacts cognitive performance and the corresponding impact on elaborate traits and preferences. Together, these experiments will answer “What is condition?” Projects 2 ed to elaborate traits and quantify whether trait elaboration influences survival (Project 2). I will also test the prediction that females receive indirect-fitness benefits from mating with preferred mates (Project 3). Using a repetitive mating tournament, I will rank-order males based on how strongly females prefer them, and then mate females to the most and least preferred males. I will test whether most and least preferred males differ in their elaborate traits, and whether the offspring of most preferred males have higher viability, produce more elaborate traits, have stronger preferences, have higher fecundity, and have higher survival than the offspring of least preferred males. Project 3 will also enable me to partition out the variance due to genes and environment and test whether environmentally induced variation in condition can be transmitted from father to offspring. By integrating approaches from behaviour, ecology, physiology, psychology, evolution and genetics, my research program will help biologists understand the evolution of mating preferences and how variation is maintained in traits that confer fitness.