Female mate choice in a neotropical frog

Female Physalaemus pustulosus choose their mates and are more likely to choose larger males. There is a significant negative correlation between the size of the male and the fundamental frequency of one of the components of its advertisement call. Playback experiments demonstrate that females are capable of choosing larger males by distinguishing among differences in spectral components of the advertisement call.     

Courtship disruption modifies mate choice in a lek-breeding bird

The aggregation of displaying males in lek-breeding birds is often associated with disruption of courtship and mating but effects of this disruption on mate choice have not been shown. In a 4-year study of Rupicola rupicola in Suriname, interference among territorial adult males disrupted 31 percent of all female courtship visits and terminated 32 percent of all matings at a lek where there were an average of 55 territorial males. Disruption in this rain forest species caused females to modify their courtship and mating patterns, and males that used intense and persistent disruption received a disproportionate share of this redirected mate choice.     

State-dependent learned valuation drives choice in an invertebrate

Humans and other vertebrates occasionally show a preference for items remembered to be costly or experienced when the subject was in a poor condition (this is known as a sunk-costs fallacy or state-dependent valuation). Whether these mechanisms shared across vertebrates are the result of convergence toward an adaptive solution or evolutionary relicts reflecting common ancestral traits is unknown. Here we show that state-dependent valuation also occurs in an invertebrate, the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria (Orthoptera: Acrididae). Given the latter's phylogenetic and neurobiological distance from those groups in which the phenomenon was already known, we suggest that state-dependent valuation mechanisms are probably ecologically rational solutions to widespread problems of choice.     

Conserved genetic basis of a quantitative plumage trait involved in mate choice

A key question in evolutionary genetics is whether shared genetic mechanisms underlie the independent evolution of similar phenotypes across phylogenetically divergent lineages. Here we show that in two classic examples of melanic plumage polymorphisms in birds, lesser snow geese (Anser c. caerulescens) and arctic skuas (Stercorarius parasiticus), melanism is perfectly associated with variation in the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene. In both species, the degree of melanism correlates with the number of copies of variant MC1R alleles. Phylogenetic reconstructions of variant MC1R alleles in geese and skuas show that melanism is a derived trait that evolved in the Pleistocene.     

Sexual difference theory: mormon crickets show role reversal in mate choice

Male Mormon crickets produce a large spermatophore that the female eats. Spermatophore proteins are important to female reproduction, and females compete for access to singing males. Males reject most receptive females as mates, and those accepted are more fecund than rejected individuals. This role reversal in courtship is in contrast to the behavior of the sexes in katydid species in which the males produce small spermatophores.     

Genetic consequences of mate choice: a quantitative genetic method for testing sexual selection theory

To investigate whether female mate choice could be directed at male genetic quality, male chemical signals and progeny fitness were studied in the red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum). Differences among males in the attractiveness of their pheromone to females were statistically significant. Developmental time of progeny was significantly heritable, indicating that some males have "good genes" for this trait. There was no statistically significant correlation between progeny fitness and male attractiveness. These results do not support the hypothesis that in this species the evolution of female preferences for male pheromone is adaptive.     

Adaptive plasticity in female mate choice dampens sexual selection on male ornaments in the lark bunting

Theory on the evolution of ornamental male traits by sexual selection assumes consistency in selection over time. Temporal variation in female choice could dampen sexual selection, but scant information exists on the degree to which individual female preferences are flexible. Here we show that in lark buntings sexual selection on male traits varied dramatically across years and, in some cases, exhibited reversals in the direction of selection for a single trait. We show that these shifts are probably because of flexibility in mate choice by individual females and that they parallel shifts in the male traits that predict female reproductive success in a given year. Plasticity in choice and concomitant reversals in mating patterns across time may weaken the strength of sexual selection and could maintain genetic variation underlying multiple sexual ornaments.     

利用抑制差减杂交筛选稻瘟菌继代接种菌株差异表达基因

稻瘟菌是重要的水稻病原微生物,通过各种变异机制提高自身对水稻的致病力.通过继代接种可使稻瘟菌发生适应性变异,从而增强致病力.为了解相关适应性变异的分子机制,利用稻瘟菌原始菌株与在水稻上继代接种的第四代菌株构建了抑制消减杂交文库.经过PCR验证及测序分析,共计获得168条EST非冗余序列.拼接后,Unigene的数量为110个.利用不同数据库,进行BLASTX分析,获得了与这些序列推测蛋白相似的功能蛋白,分析蛋白功能注释表明这些蛋白主要与合成和信号传导相关.GO分析表明相关蛋白涉及生命活动的多个方面,但主要集中于细胞生长发育、核酸结合及外界刺激的感知及传导.     

威海近海底泥中兼性厌氧菌的分离及鉴定

对威海近海底泥中兼性厌氧菌进行了分离和鉴定,分离得到7株不同种类的细菌:HY1、HY2、HY3、HY4、HY5、HY6、HY7。经Blast软件比对分析以及构建系统发育树,结果表明,HY7与Mi-crobacterium kitamiense的相似性达到99.79%,属于同一个种;而HY1、HY2、HY3、HY4、HY5、HY6与数据库中已明确鉴定种的最大同源性都小于95%,应该是潜在的新属新种,有待进一步鉴定。     

Evidence for mate fidelity in the gray seal

Colonially breeding gray seals are polygynous. Males are larger than females, compete with each other for position among aggregated females, and contribute no parental care. Genetic analysis of pups born on the island of North Rona, Scotland, reveals large numbers of full siblings, although dominant males father disproportionately few of these. This result cannot be explained by mating patterns based solely on male dominance and the spatio-temporal organization of the breeding colony. Instead, many full siblings must result from choices favoring previous parental combinations. Thus, polygyny and partner fidelity appear to operate simultaneously in this breeding colony.     

Natural selection and the reinforcement of mate recognition

Natural selection on mate recognition may often contribute to speciation, resulting in reproductive character displacement. Field populations of Drosophila serrata display reproductive character displacement in cuticular hydrocarbons when sympatric with Drosophila birchii. We exposed field sympatric and allopatric populations of D. serrata to experimental sympatry with D. birchii for nine generations. Cuticular hydrocarbons of field allopatric D. serrata populations evolved to resemble the field sympatric populations, whereas field sympatric D. serrata populations remained unchanged. Our experiment indicates that natural selection on mate recognition resulted in the field pattern of reproductive character displacement.     

Ecology. Food fight drives evolution

On page 441 of this issue, evolutionary biologists showcase the purple-throated carib hummingbird as a rare example of food supply--in this case, flower shape--spurring the evolution of a sexual dimorphism, or a feature that differs between males and females. On St. Lucia, an island in the West Indies, female caribs sport bills a third longer and twice as curved as those of their male counterparts--one of the most extreme bill differences between the sexes in any hummingbird species. In the paper, the researchers link these "whoppingly dimorphic bills" to the specific flowers the male and female caribs frequent.     

Aneuploidy drives genomic instability in yeast

Aneuploidy decreases cellular fitness, yet it is also associated with cancer, a disease of enhanced proliferative capacity. To investigate one mechanism by which aneuploidy could contribute to tumorigenesis, we examined the effects of aneuploidy on genomic stability. We analyzed 13 budding yeast strains that carry extra copies of single chromosomes and found that all aneuploid strains exhibited one or more forms of genomic instability. Most strains displayed increased chromosome loss and mitotic recombination, as well as defective DNA damage repair. Aneuploid fission yeast strains also exhibited defects in mitotic recombination. Aneuploidy-induced genomic instability could facilitate the development of genetic alterations that drive malignant growth in cancer.     

Local mate competition and parental investment in social insects

Efforts to develop formulas for contrasting genetic interests of workers and queens in social Hymenoptera are complicated by many factors, including multiple matings by queens, oviposition by unmated females, and mating rivalry among genetic relatives (Hamilton's "local mate competition"). Because of haplodiploid sex determination in Hymenoptera, when such influences are absent, queens benefit from 1:1 sex ratios of investment (male: female) in reproductive offspring, workers from 1:3 ratios among reproductive siblings. Reports of variable ratios, including many well above 1:3, and female biases in nonsocial Hymenoptera and diplodiploid termites, implicate local mate competition and raises questions about previous interpretations that workers have their way.