The Role of Mating Preferences in Shaping Interspecific Divergence in Mating Signals in Mollies (Poeciliidae: Poecilia: Mollienesia).

交配偏好在形成花属种间交配信号分歧中的作用（花属：花属：花属） 玛格丽特B。Ptacek雌性交配偏好在塑造一个物种内雄性交配信号特征方面的重要性是众所周知的。 然而，在一个物种内的雌性交配偏好的分歧，这些交配信号物种之间的影响才刚刚开始探索。 该项目旨在探讨女性交配偏好的作用，在产生和维持的行为和形态变化与帆鳍和短鳍莫莉（Poeciliidae：Poecilia：Mollienesia）之间的分歧。 Mollies是一个理想的模型系统，因为它们在雄性第二性征和交配行为方面表现出巨大的多样性，无论是在物种内部还是物种之间。 在两个主要的物种复合体的mollies（sailfin和shortfin物种）的差异与分歧在他们的交配系统。 帆鳍类的雄性有一个大大增大的背鳍，它们在雌性面前展开，这是一种典型的求偶展示，用来引起雌性在交配中的合作。 短鳍类的雄性既不显示扩大的背鳍，也不进行求偶炫耀行为。 先前的研究表明，帆鳍鱼的雌性利用背鳍和求偶展示的特殊特征来区分自己物种的不同雄性，以及自己物种的雄性和短鳍鱼物种的雄性。这种模式相似的女性交配偏好在两个内部和种间水平认为，性选择可能发挥了重要作用，促进这些特征之间的分歧帆鳍和短鳍物种的莫莉。 此外，整个莫莉组的系统发育（系谱）关系已经确定。 这将提供一个框架，在此基础上研究的起源和方向的变化，男性第二性征和行为，以及起源的女性偏好这些特征的一些sailfin和shortfin molly物种。这里提出的研究将确定雌性交配偏好如何影响雄性交配信号在物种内部和物种之间的差异。 性选择和物种识别之间的关系的测试已经完成，mollies提供了一个理想的系统，在其中调查这种联系。 拟议的研究结果将提供一个重要的模型，如何性选择可能会导致一组poecilid鱼的行为，生态和生活史性状进化的交配前生殖隔离机制和最终的物种形成。

The role of mating preferences in shaping interspecific divergence in mating signals in mollies (Poeciliidae: Poecilia: Molliensia). Margaret B. PtacekThe importance of female mating preferences in shaping the features of male mating signals within a species is well established. However, the influence of female mating preferences within a species on the divergence of these mating signals between species is just beginning to be explored. This project is designed to explore the role of female mating preferences in generating and maintaining the behavioral and morphological changes associated with divergence between sailfin and shortfin mollies (Poeciliidae: Poecilia: Mollienesia). Mollies are an ideal model system for such a study because they exhibit enormous diversity in male secondary sexual characteristics and mating behaviors both within and between species. Differences in the two major species complexes of mollies (sailfin and shortfin species) are associated with divergence in their mating systems. Males of sailfin species have a greatly enlarged dorsal fin that they fan in front of females in a characteristic courtship display used to elicit female cooperation in mating. Males of shortfin species show neither the enlarged dorsal fin nor perform courtship display behavior. Previous studies have shown that females of sailfin species use particular features of the enlarged dorsal fin and courtship display to distinguish both between different males of their own species and between males of their own species and males of shortfin species. Such a pattern of similar female mating preferences at both the intra- and interspecific levels argues that sexual selection may have played an important role in promoting the divergence in these traits between sailfin and shortfin species of mollies. In addition, the phylogenetic (genealogical) relationships of the entire molly group have been determined. This phylogeny will provide a framework upon which to study the origin and direction of change in male secondary sexual traits and behaviors as well as the origin of female preferences for these traits in a number of sailfin and shortfin molly species. The research proposed here will determine how female mating preferences can shape the divergence of male mating signals both within and between species. Few tests of the relationship between sexual selection and species recognition have been performed and mollies offer an ideal system in which to investigate this link. The results of the proposed studies will provide an important model for how sexual selection might lead to the evolution of premating reproductive isolating mechanisms and eventual speciation in a group of poeciliid fishes for which much is already known about behavioral, ecological and life history trait evolution.