The dynamics of sexual selection on gametes in a broadcast spawner

这个项目旨在开发综合的方法来理解配子层面的性选择。它将使用一种新的、高度通用的模型系统——蓝色贻贝——来深入了解多变量选择是如何针对射精的，选择的动态性质，以及卵子和精子之间的化学通讯在这些过程中所起的假定作用。将使用一系列跨学科的方法来揭示这些模式及其背后的机制。通过关注一个物种表现出祖先的广播产卵繁殖策略，这项工作将有助于理解生殖生物学的主要进化转变。

This project aims to develop integrated approaches for understanding sexual selection at the level of the gamete. It will use a new and highly versatile model system - the blue mussel - to seek insights into how multivariate selection targets ejaculates, the dynamic nature of selection, and the putative role that chemical communication between eggs and sperm plays in mediating these processes. A range of interdisciplinary approaches will be used to uncover these patterns, and the mechanisms underlying them. By focusing on a species exhibiting the ancestral reproductive strategy of broadcast spawning, the work will contribute to an understanding of major evolutionary transitions in reproductive biology.