DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Sex-specific effects on postcopulatory sexual selection and sexual conflict in a sex-role reversed pipefish

雄性怀孕发生在同节鱼类中，这是包括海龙、海马和笛鱼在内的一个群体。雌性将卵产给配偶，雄性将发育中的后代放在一个类似胎盘的结构中，称为育儿袋。研究人员最近发现，在海湾海豚中，怀孕期间使用的雄性资源是不同的投资，更多的资源用于漂亮雌性的后代。这些结果提出了许多关于这种现象背后的机制的问题，这个问题将在本项目中解决。将进行繁殖实验，以研究雄性和雌性对海湾海豚后代存活的影响，并探索交配前配偶偏好和雄性交配后资源投资之间的相互作用。后代的存活预计主要由雄性决定，雄性对配偶质量的感知是用来调整对后代的资源投入的线索。通过利用性别角色颠倒的物种，即雌性竞争交配机会给雄性，性别选择理论的基本原理将得到检验，该理论在很大程度上是在具有正常性别角色的物种中发展起来的。该项目的结果将深入了解交配前和交配后的性选择在复杂特征进化中的相对作用，例如男性怀孕。该项目将涉及本科生和小学生，以及与达拉斯世界水族馆的合作，以提高公众对联体鱼类科学研究的认识。

Male pregnancy occurs in syngnathid fishes, a group that includes sea dragons, seahorses, and pipefishes. Females give eggs to their mates and males carry the developing offspring in a placenta-like structure called the brood pouch. The investigators recently showed that, in the Gulf pipefish, the male resources used during pregnancy are differentially invested, with more resources devoted to broods from attractive females. These results raise many questions regarding the mechanism underlying this phenomenon, which will be addressed in this project. Breeding experiments will be conducted to investigate male and female effects on offspring survivorship in the Gulf pipefish and to explore the interaction between pre-mating mate preference and post-mating resource investment by males. Offspring survivorship is expected to be determined mainly by males and that male perception of mate quality is the cue used to adjust resource investment in progeny. By utilizing a sex-role reversed species, in which females compete for mating access to males, basic principles of sexual selection theory, which has largely been developed in species with normal sex roles, will be tested. The results of this project will provide an in-depth understanding of the relative roles of pre- and post-mating sexual selection in the evolution of complex traits, such as male pregnancy. The project will involve undergraduates and outreach to elementary school children, as well as a collaboration with the Dallas World Aquarium to promote public awareness of scientific research on syngnathid fishes.