Artificial Selection for Spectral Sensitivity and its Effects in Poecilia reticulata

9508198 ENDLER动物的形状、大小和颜色图案的多样性是由什么产生的？通过对已知功能性状的分析，以及对结构、功能和适应度之间的理论和实验关系的探索，我们可以开始理解为什么需要的功能不同，为什么物种之间的结构也不同。一个特别好的模型系统是视觉和颜色模式的遗传，这对视觉导向的物种至关重要。动物颜色图案的外观、感知和有用性取决于光环境的光谱组成、每个图案元素的反射光谱和观看者眼中的视锥色素的相互作用。视觉环境或视觉参数的任何变化都会以可预测的方式影响感知和适应性。Endler博士建议通过一项广泛的人工选择实验来检查感官偏差的影响，该实验将选择改变的视力，并检查这种情况对网状扁豆的可能影响。他还将进行一项半自然实验，其中视觉条件和捕食对象将独立变化。从自然选择的角度来看，这些问题既有趣又重要，而且对物种的起源和维持也有重要的意义。保存和保护濒危物种的努力通常集中在生态因素，如最小可行种群规模，遗传因素，如有效种群规模，以及一般栖息地保护工作中包含的未知因素。然而，如果我们不了解一个物种是如何自我维持的，我们就不能指望无限期地保护它。这项工作专门研究了物种识别，并将量化(1)通过直接人工选择视觉参数来改变视觉感知，以及(2)改变视觉环境。由于本研究是用一个理想的模型系统对一般原理进行检验，因此研究结果应具有广泛的通用性。

9508198 ENDLER What generates the great diversity of shapes, sizes, and color patterns in animals? Through the analysis of traits with known function, and explorations of the theoretical and experimental relationship between structure, function, and fitness, we can begin to understand why required functions differ and why structures also differ among species. A particularly good model system is the genetics of vision and of color patterns, which are essential to visually oriented species. The appearance, perception and usefulness of an animal's color pattern depend upon interactions of the spectral composition of the light environment, the reflectance spectra of each pattern element, and the cone pigments in the viewers' eye. Any changes in the visual environment or visual parameters should affect perception and hence fitness in a predictable way. Dr. Endler proposes to examine the effects of sensory biases by means of an extensive artificial selection experiment that will select for altered vision, and examine the possible effects of this in Poecilia reticulata. He will also run a semi-natural experiment in which visual conditions and predation will be varied independently. These questions are interesting and important from the viewpoint of selection, and also have important implications for the origin and maintenance of species. Efforts to conserve and protect endangered species usually concentrate on ecological factors such as minimum viable population size, genetic factors such as effective population size, and unknown factors encompassed in efforts toward general habitat protection. However, if we do not understand how a species maintains itself we cannot hope to protect it indefinitely. The proposed work specifically inquires into species recognition, and will quantify (1) changing visual perception by direct artificial selection on visual parameters, and (2) changing the visual environment. Because the research tests general principles with an ideal model system, the results should be of wide general application.