The evolutionary significance of ejaculate-female interactions.

射精与女性生殖道相互作用的方式被认为对体内肥料具有深远的进化意义。然而，我们目前对大多数类群的这些过程缺乏清晰的认识，正是因为这种射精-雌性的相互作用隐藏在雌性的生殖道内。在这个项目中，对一种模式脊椎动物（孔雀鱼）进行的一系列综合实验将克服研究射精-雌性相互作用的固有挑战。该项目旨在揭示射精-雌性相互作用在精子竞争中的作用，并将探索这些相互作用在不同进化水平和不同社会环境中的后果。

The way that ejaculates interact with the female reproductive tract is thought to have profound evolutionary implications in internal fertilizers. Yet we currently lack clear insights into these processes in most taxa, precisely because such ejaculate-female interactions are hidden from view inside the female's reproductive tract. In this project an integrated series of experiments on a model vertebrate (the guppy) will overcome the inherent challenges in studying ejaculate-female interactions. The project aims to shed new light on the role that ejaculate-female interactions play in sperm competition, and will explore the consequences of these interactions at different evolutionary levels and across varying social environments.