Collaborative Research: Plumage redness and good genes in the House Finch

雄鸟在羽毛颜色上表现出显著的差异，雌性鸟在选择配偶时会评估这些差异。这种配偶选择的基本原理是，装饰与遗传质量相关，因此，通过选择五颜六色的雄性，雌性为其后代获得了良好的基因。有助于增强抗病能力的基因在自然界中是典型的，因为病原体极大地影响了宿主的繁殖和生存。因此，“抗性”基因通常被认为是与鲜艳的颜色有关的好基因。首先将通过确定当家雀感染细菌病原体鸡毒支原体时哪些基因被打开或关闭来检验羽毛颜色标志着好基因的假说。基因表达将使用称为微阵列的工具来确定，这种工具可以准确地同时量化数千个基因表达的增加或减少。研究人员将比较颜色鲜艳和颜色鲜艳的雄性家雀的基因表达模式。如果好基因假设是正确的，聪明的雄性应该表现出与单调的雄性不同的基因表达谱。此外，已知在抗病中起作用的特定基因的启动将有助于确定羽毛颜色是否与特定的好基因有关。这项研究很重要，因为它增进了对导致抗病进化的进化过程的理解。了解疾病抵抗力的所有方面对于预测和应对野生动物、家畜和人类中新出现的传染病的威胁至关重要。

Male birds display remarkable variation in plumage coloration, and females assess these differences when selecting mates. The rationale for such mate choice is that ornamentation is correlated with genetic quality so that, by choosing colorful males, females obtain good genes for their offspring. Genes contributing to greater disease resistance are quintessential in the natural world because pathogens greatly affect their hosts' reproduction and survival. As a result, "resistance" genes have often been assumed to be the good genes associated with bright coloration. The hypothesis of plumage coloration signaling good genes will be tested first by determining which genes are switched on or off when House Finches are infected with the bacterial pathogen, Mycoplasma gallicepticum. Gene expression will be determined using tools called microarrays that can accurately quantify the increase or decrease in expression of thousands of genes simultaneously. Gene expression patterns will be compared between brightly colored and drably colored male House finches. If the Good Genes Hypothesis is correct, brighter males should show different gene expression profiles than drabber ones. Furthermore, the turning on of specific genes known to play a role in disease resistance will help determine whether plumage coloration is associated with specific good genes. This research is important because it improves understanding of the evolutionary processes that lead to the evolution of disease resistance. Understanding all facets of disease resistance is crucial for predicting and responding to the threats of emerging infectious diseases in wildlife, domestic animals, and humans.