A gradient of sexual selection and sexual conflict: parental investment and sex-role reversal and their genomic footprints

选择对雄性和雌性的作用不同，并驱动它们的表型差异。大多数研究都集中在男性以及性选择如何在获得女性配偶的背景下塑造他们的装饰品和武器。这不仅仅是因为人类，就像大多数其他脊椎动物一样，表现出“传统的”、“达尔文式”的性别角色，将我们的感知集中在有竞争力的男性和有爱心的母亲身上。然而，在几种海马、海龙和海豚(海豚科)中，雌性为获得配偶而竞争，而雄性是挑剔的性别，在雄性怀孕期间提供父母照顾。我们的项目将调查这些物种是如何在女性强化的性选择下进化的，以及如何通过增加父亲的照顾来影响性别特有特征的进化，这些特征来自两性之间共享的基因组，从而导致性别冲突。为此，我们将在性别冲突程度不同的物种中识别性别特异序列(性染色体)以及性别差异很大或很小的组织中性别偏见基因的表达。我们将分析调节性别角色的基因是否来自性别决定基因。从性别角色颠倒的重复进化中受益，我们将测试突触类动物中新的和收敛的序列进化模式，以及其他也进化了怀孕的脊椎动物群体。雄性怀孕不仅是联龙的一种独特的繁殖策略，而且维持胚胎对父亲S身体--育儿囊--的依附的结构，也在联龙中进化了几倍的复杂性。我们将使用这种重复的进化模式来比较研究基因组和转录组的进化，以及它们在父性投资递增的重复梯度上的生理影响。上述性别角色颠倒伴随着性别二形性的进化，在雌性中表现为美丽的、有时是壮观的装饰物，在联会亚类的几个系统发育亚群中独立进化。我们将研究性别特异性表型是如何建立在性别偏见基因表达的基础上的，以及这可能如何导致它们共同基因组中的性别对抗冲突。此外，我们还将仔细研究荷尔蒙在调节基因表达和包括行为在内的性别表型方面的作用。该项目将描述女性和男性的遗传和内分泌网络，并将其与性别角色网络区分开来，该网络建立在生成高质量的参考基因组、男性和女性的基因组重测序数据、多组织转录以及内分泌操作的基础上。

Selection acts differently on males and females and drives their phenotypic dissimilarities. Most research has focused on males and how sexual selection shapes their ornaments and weaponry in the context of gaining access to female mates. This is not least due to the fact that humans, as most other vertebrates, show "conventional", "Darwinian" sex roles concentrating our perception on competitive males and caring mothers. In several seahorse, seadragon and pipefish species (family Syngnathidae), however, females compete for access to mates, while males are the choosy sex and provide the parental care during male pregnancy. Our project will investigate how these species evolved under intensified sexual selection on females and how the evolution of sex-specific traits from a genome shared between the sexes and hence with sexual conflict is impacted by increasing paternal care. To this aim we will identify sex-specific sequences (sex chromosomes) as well as sex-biased gene expression in tissues with strong or little sex differences in species with varying degrees of sexual conflict. We will analyze if genes mediating sex roles are derived from sex-determining genes. Benefitting from the repetitive evolution of sex-role reversal, we will test for patterns of novel and convergent sequence evolution within syngnathids but also to other vertebrate groups that also evolved pregnancy. Not only is male pregnancy a unique reproduction strategy of syngnathids but the structure sustaining embryonic attachment to the father´s body, the brood pouch, also evolved increased complexity several times within syngnathids. We will use this repetitive evolutionary pattern for comparative studies of genome and transcriptome evolution as well as their physiological impacts along repeated gradients of ascending paternal investment. The afore mentioned "sex-role reversal" accompanied by the evolution of sexual dimorphism manifested with beautiful and sometimes spectacular ornaments in the female sex has independently evolved in several phylogenetic subgroups of syngnathids. We will investigate how sex-specific phenotypes are built upon sex-biased gene expression and how this might lead to sexual antagonistic conflict in their common genome. In addition, we will scrutinise the role of hormones in regulating gene expression and sexual phenotypes including behaviour. This project will characterise the genetic and endocrinological network of female- and maleness and distinguish it from the sex-role network building upon generating of high-quality reference genomes, genome resequencing data of males and females, multi tissue transcriptomics as well as endocrinological manipulations.