Interactions Between Good Genes and the Environment in the Gray Treefrog

灰树蛙优良基因与环境的互作。密苏里大学卡尔·格哈德如果展示特征与遗传质量相关，那么交配偏好和这些偏好所偏爱的男性展示的进化就会发生：拥有迷人展示的雄性后代应该继承“好基因”，从而使高质量的后代更喜欢雌性。在这种情况下，隐含的是在展示性状中需要充分的遗传变异，以及展示性状和后代适应能力的组成部分之间的遗传相关性。这种遗传变异是如何维持的，以及大多数自然种群所经历的环境变化是如何影响雌性偏好、雄性特征和后代质量之间的遗传关系的？本研究将以灰树蛙为模型系统，研究在不同环境中吸引人的雄性显示特征-叫声持续时间-与后代健康之间的关系。特别是，这项研究将确定父亲的遗传质量(根据呼叫持续时间进行分析)和环境质量如何共同影响后代健康的几个组成部分，包括条件、表现特征的表达以及繁殖资源的分配。这项研究还将考察条件与后代叫声持续时间之间的遗传关系；由于条件可能反映了许多基因，并且这些基因在不同的环境中可能具有不同的影响，条件与显示特征之间的关系可能有助于解释雄性显示器中遗传变异的持久性。因此，这项研究的一个中心目标是了解环境变化如何影响展示性状和后代适应能力之间的遗传关系，以及最终如何维持性别选择性状的遗传变异。

Interactions between good genes and the environment in the gray treefrogH. Carl GerhardtUniversity of MissouriThe evolution of mating preferences and of the male displays favored by these preferences can occur if display traits are correlated with genetic quality: offspring of males with attractive displays should then inherit "good genes," resulting in the benefit of high quality offspring for preferring females. Implicit in this scenario is the requirement of ample genetic variation in the display trait and a genetic correlation between the display and components of offspring fitness. How is this genetic variation maintained, and how does the environmental variation that is experienced by most natural populations affect the genetic relationships between female preferences, male traits, and the quality of their offspring?Using gray tree frogs as a model system, this study will investigate the relationship between an attractive male display trait - call duration - and offspring fitness in different environments. In particular, the study will determine how the genetic quality of the father, assayed in terms of call duration, and the quality of the environment together affect several components of offspring fitness, including condition, expression of the display trait, and allocation of resources to reproduction. This study will also examine the genetic relationship between condition and call duration in offspring; because condition may reflect many genes, and these genes may have different effects in different environments, the relationship between condition and display traits may help explain the persistence of genetic variation in male displays. Thus, a central goal of this study is to understand how environmental variation affects the genetic relationships between display traits and offspring fitness and, ultimately, how genetic variation in sexually-selected traits is maintained.