DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Population Genetics of Genes Important in Female Responses to Mating in Drosophila melanogaster

在果蝇和许多其他动物和植物类群中，交配后发生的雄性和雌性之间的相互作用可能对生殖成功产生巨大影响。 例如，果蝇精液蛋白质导致雌性产卵率、雌性死亡率的增加和雌性再交配的减少。 大卫·贝贡博士和玛拉·劳尼扎克的这项工作的目标是了解交配后相互作用的雌性方面。 女性表达的基因有助于精子竞争的结果将进行遗传和分子研究。 作用于这些基因的进化力量将使用群体遗传学进行分析。性选择可能是推动包括人类在内的某些生物进化的主要力量。 拟议的研究将有助于确定性选择的机制，参与男女相互作用的蛋白质的生物化学类别，以及性选择下基因的群体遗传特征。 所有这些结果可能在人类生殖生物学的研究中找到更广泛的应用。

In Drosophila and many other animal and plant taxa, interactions between males and females that occur after mating can have huge impacts on reproductive success. For example, Drosophila seminal fluid proteins cause increases in female egg-laying rate, female death rate, and reductions in female re-mating. The goal of this work by Dr. David Begun and Mara Lawniczak is to gain an understanding of the female side of post-mating interactions. Female-expressed genes contributing to the outcome of sperm competition will be investigated genetically and molecularly. The evolutionary forces acting on these genes will be analyzed using population genetics. Sexual selection can be a major force in driving evolutionary change in some organisms, including humans. The proposed research will contribute to identification of mechanisms of sexual selection, of biochemical classes of proteins involved in male-female interactions, and of the population genetic signatures of genes under sexual selection. All of these results may find broader application in the study of human reproductive biology.