International Research Fellowship Program: The Evolution of Polyandry in Heterogeneous Environments

国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行三到二十四个月的研究。该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，以及使用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。艾薇与保罗博士一起工作。瑞士苏黎世大学的沃德说。本项目的目的是调查性选择的模式生物，黄粪蝇（Scathophaga stercoraria）的进化过程。许多动物物种的雌性选择配偶的基础上，男性的潜在质量作为遗传父系。然而，最近的研究表明，由于基因与环境的相互作用（GEI），男性的遗传质量在不同的环境中存在差异，其中环境条件影响基因的表达方式。对于女性在异质环境中，GEI的存在意味着，一个配偶可能是不足以提供一个女性的最佳遗传父系在所有微生境在一个特定的栖息地。为了产生在多种环境中表现良好的后代，雌性可能会与许多不同的雄性交配，确保产生遗传多样性的后代。如果一妻多夫是选择性的优势，在异质栖息地，由于基因与环境的相互作用，那么我预测，一妻多夫女性将留下更多的存活后代比一雄多夫女性，因为他们的后代是更高的遗传变异性。雄性遗传质量不是绝对的这一观点代表了性选择研究的一个新方向。除了为这一新的研究途径做出贡献外，本提案中概述的工作还试图检验一个假说，该假说长期以来一直被用作解释雌性多次交配的进化，但很少进行实证研究。

The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-two-month research fellowship by Dr. Tracie M. Ivy to work with Dr. Paul I. Ward at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. The aim of this project is to investigate the evolutionary process of sexual selection in a model study organism, the yellow dung fly (Scathophaga stercoraria). Females of many animal species choose their mates based on males' potential quality as genetic sires. However, recent research has demonstrated that male genetic quality varies across different environments due to gene-by-environment interactions (GEIs), in which environmental conditions influence the way genes are expressed. For females in heterogeneous environments, the existence of GEIs implies that one mate is probably inadequate to provide a female with the best genetic sire over all microhabitats within a particular habitat. To produce offspring that perform well in multiple environments, females may mate with many different males, ensuring the production of genetically diverse offspring. If polyandry is selectively advantageous in heterogeneous habitats due to gene-by-environment interactions, then I predict that polyandrous females will leave more surviving offspring than monandrous females because their offspring are of higher genetic variability. The idea that male genetic quality is not absolute represents a new direction in the study of sexual selection. As well as contributing to this new avenue of investigation, the work outlined in this proposal seeks to test a hypothesis that has long been offered as an explanation for the evolution of female multiple mating, but which has rarely been empirically investigated.