Mating Preference Evolution: A Nutritional Ecology Approach

寻找配偶的成本可能很高，因为这会让雌性暴露在捕食者的面前，并占用其他任务的时间。理解为什么面对这些成本，择偶偏好会发生变化是我的主要研究目标。大多数间接适应性益处假设表明，交配偏好的演变是因为复杂的特征反映了更大的后代存活率或繁殖成功率（良好的基因）。 项目 1 通过评估营养如何影响与表现特征变异相关的生理和认知基础，为检验第二性特征与状况相关的理论奠定了基础。由于能量储存差异、肌肉代谢能力或代谢率而导致的生理能力差异可能是身体状况变化的基础，因此我将量化营养如何影响生理和代谢性能以及对精细特征和偏好的相应影响。或者，状况的变化可能是由于个人收集、保留和使用信息的方式不同而导致的，因此我将量化营养如何影响认知表现以及对详细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 旨在阐述特征并量化特征阐述是否影响生存（项目 2）。我还将测试雌性通过与首选配偶交配而获得间接健康益处的预测（项目 3）。通过重复的交配锦标赛，我将根据雌性对雄性的偏好程度对雄性进行排序，然后将雌性与最喜欢和最不喜欢的雄性交配。我将测试最受青睐的雄性和最不受青睐的雄性的复杂性状是否存在差异，以及最受青睐的雄性的后代是否比最不受青睐的雄性的后代具有更高的生存能力、产生更复杂的性状、有更强的偏好、更高的繁殖力和更高的存活率。项目 3 还将使我能够区分基因和环境引起的差异，并测试环境引起的状况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，我的研究项目将帮助生物学家了解交配偏好的演变以及如何维持赋予健康的性状的变异。

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.