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1.
    
There is increasing evidence that melanin‐based plumage coloration correlates with different components of fitness and that it may act as a social or sexual signal of individual quality. We analysed variation in melanin pigmentation in the outermost tail feathers of the Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago. During courtship flights, male Snipe use their outermost tail feathers to generate a drumming sound, which plays a role in territory establishment and mate choice. As the outermost tail feathers are displayed to females during these flights, we predicted that conspicuous variation in their rusty‐brown (pheomelanin‐based) coloration may act as an honest signal of individual quality. To test this prediction, we spectrophotometrically measured brightness (an indicator of total melanin content) and red chroma (an indicator of pheomelanin content) of the outermost tail feathers in 180 juvenile and adult Common Snipe. An age‐related decline in feather brightness was found exclusively in females, suggesting that melanization could have evolved by natural selection to camouflage incubating birds. In both sexes, brightness of the tail feathers was inversely correlated with their structural quality (as measured with mass–length residuals), suggesting that melanization could increase mechanical properties of feathers and, in males, enhance the quality of courtship sonation. Red chroma positively correlated with total plasma protein concentration, supporting our prediction that pheomelanin pigmentation of tail feathers may act as an honest signal of condition. Our study indicated that variation in the melanin‐based coloration of the outermost tail feathers in the Common Snipe could have evolved as a result of several different selection pressures and it emphasizes the complexity of the processes that underlie the evolution of melanin‐based plumage coloration in birds.  相似文献   

2.
    
Parents should differentially invest in sons or daughters depending on the sex‐specific fitness returns from male and female offspring. In species with sexually selected heritable male characters, highly ornamented fathers should overproduce sons, which will be more sexually attractive than sons of less ornamented fathers. Because of genetic correlations between the sexes, females that express traits which are under selection in males should also overproduce sons. However, sex allocation strategies may consist in reaction norms leading to spatiotemporal variation in the association between offspring sex ratio (SR) and parental phenotype. We analysed offspring SR in barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) over 8 years in relation to two sexually dimorphic traits: tail length and melanin‐based ventral plumage coloration. The proportion of sons increased with maternal plumage darkness and paternal tail length, consistently with sexual dimorphism in these traits. The size of the effect of these parental traits on SR was large compared to other studies of offspring SR in birds. Barn swallows thus manipulate offspring SR to overproduce ‘sexy sons’ and potentially to mitigate the costs of intralocus sexually antagonistic selection. Interannual variation in the relationships between offspring SR and parental traits was observed which may suggest phenotypic plasticity in sex allocation and provides a proximate explanation for inconsistent results of studies of sex allocation in relation to sexual ornamentation in birds.  相似文献   

3.
    
Coloration can play critical roles in a species' biology. The allometry of color patterns may be useful for elucidating the evolutionary mechanisms responsible for shaping the traits. We measured characteristics relating to eight aspects of color patterns from Graptemys oculifera and G. flavimaculata to investigate the allometric differences among male, female, and unsexed juvenile specimens. Additionally, we investigated ontogenetic shifts by incorporating the unsexed juveniles into the male and female datasets. In general, male color traits were isometric (i.e., color scaled with body size), while females and juvenile color traits were hypoallometric, growing in size more slowly than the increase in body size. When we included unsexed juveniles in our male and female datasets, our linear regression analyses found all relationships to be hypoallometric and our model selection analysis found support for nonlinear models describing the relationship between body size and color patterns, suggestive of an ontogenetic shift in coloration traits for both sexes at maturity. Although color is critical for many species' biology and therefore under strong selective pressure in many other species, our results are likely explained by an epiphenomenon related to the different selection pressures on body size and growth rates between juveniles and adults and less attributable to the evolution of color patterns themselves.  相似文献   

4.
    
Coloration in birds can act as an important sexual signal in males, yet in many species, both sexes display bright colors. Social selection may account for this pattern, with more brightly colored individuals pairing together on the best territories. Mutual mate choice may also explain this, as males investing a great deal of parental care in the offspring should be choosy about their social mates. It is less clear whether this pattern of mate choice can apply to extra‐pair partners as well. We examined western bluebirds (Sialia mexicana) to determine whether more colorful individuals tended to pair with one another, both in social pairs and between females and their extra‐pair partners. Both male and female western bluebirds display both UV‐blue structural plumage and a melanin‐based chestnut breast patch, although females are duller than males. Social pairs mated assortatively with regard to UV‐blue brightness, but not chestnut coloration. There was no evidence that extra‐pair partners mated assortatively, but males with brighter UV‐blue coloration had fewer extra‐pair offspring in their nests. Older males were more successful at siring extra‐pair offspring, despite displaying no differences in coloration compared to younger males. Coloration did not play a role in determining extra‐pair male success. These results suggest that coloration plays a role in the formation of social pairs, but not mate choice for extra‐pair partners.  相似文献   

5.
    
Many animal taxa that display sexual size dimorphism (SSD) exhibit a positive allometric relationship in which the degree of dimorphism increases with body size. This macroevolutionary pattern is known as Rensch's rule. Although sexual selection is hypothesized to be the main mechanism causing this pattern, body size is influenced by several selective forces, including natural and sexual selection. Therefore, by focusing exclusively on SSD one cannot ascertain which of these selective forces drives Rensch's rule. If sexual selection is indeed the main mechanism underlying Rensch's rule, we predict that other sexually selected traits, including coloration‐based ornaments, will also exhibit interspecific allometric scaling consistent with Rensch's rule. We tested this prediction using wing pigmentation of 89 species of dragonflies. Studies show that male wing pigmentation is generally under strong intra‐ and intersexual selection, so that sexual dichromatism in this trait should follow Rensch's rule. Conversely, the available evidence suggests that male body size is usually not sexually selected in dragonflies, so we do not expect SSD to follow Rensch's rule. First, we found that sexual dichromatism in wing pigmentation was consistent with Rensch's rule. The phylogenetic major axis regression slope was significantly greater than one. We also showed that the allometric slope for SSD was not different from unity, providing no support for Rensch's rule. Our results provide the first evidence that a trait which appears to be under strong sexual selection exhibits a pattern consistent with Rensch's rule.  相似文献   

6.
    
ISMAEL GALVÁN  & JUAN MORENO 《Ibis》2009,151(3):541-546
It has been proposed that mate preferences by female Pied Flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca differ between southern (Iberian) and northern (Scandinavian) European populations. Whereas the size of the white forehead patch, but not plumage colour, has been reported to be a sexually selected trait in the former, only plumage darkness apparently acts as an ornament in the latter. In addition, northern male Pied Flycatchers become darker with age, a trend not detected until the present study in southern birds. Here we show that in an Iberian population of Pied Flycatchers breeding only a few tens of kilometres from previously studied populations, plumage darkness is associated with mating success and increases with age, whereas the size of the white forehead patch is not related to mating success and is only weakly correlated with age, trends similar to those reported for Scandinavian rather than other Iberian Pied Flycatcher populations. This represents a case of variation in sexually selected traits between geographically close populations of Pied Flycatchers that cannot be explained by sympatry with closely related species. It is proposed that differences in the identity and abundance of environmental stressors may be the cause of this regional variation in sexually selected traits.  相似文献   

7.
    
Variation in intensity and targets of sexual selection on multiple traits has been suggested to play a major role in promoting phenotypic differentiation between populations, although the divergence in selection may depend on year, local conditions or age. In this study, we quantified sexual selection for two putative sexual signals across two Central and East European barn swallow (Hirundo rustica rustica) populations from Czech Republic and Romania over multiple years. We then related these differences in selection to variation in sexual characters among barn swallow populations. Our results show that tail length and ventral coloration vary between populations, sexes, and age classes (first‐time breeders vs. experienced birds). We found that selection on tail length was stronger in first‐time breeders than in experienced birds and in males than in females in the Romanian population, while these differences between age groups and sexes were weak in Czech birds. We suggest that the populational difference in selection on tail length might be related to the differences in breeding conditions. Our results show that ventral coloration is darker (i.e., has lower brightness) in the Romanian than in the Czech population, and in experienced birds and males compared with first‐time breeders and females, respectively. The sexual difference in ventral coloration may suggest sexual selection on this trait, which is supported by the significant directional selection of ventral coloration in first‐time breeding males on laying date. However, after controlling for the confounding effect of wing length and tarsus length, the partial directional selection gradient on this trait turned nonsignificant, suggesting that the advantage of dark ventral coloration in early breeding birds is determined by the correlated traits of body size. These findings show that ventral coloration may be advantageous over the breeding season, but the underlying mechanism of this relationship is not clarified.  相似文献   

8.
    
Melanin‐based coloration reflects mostly social status and dominance in males of several species. However, the relation of melanism with other suites of behavioral traits has received less attention. Here, we examined whether the melanic coloration of the shell of male Spanish terrapins Mauremys leprosa was related to several behavioral patterns. To test this, we simulated predatory attacks of different risk levels and measured the time that the turtles spent hiding entirely in their own shells (i.e. appearance times). We also measured the activity level of the turtles in a novel‐environment test. The results showed that melanin‐based coloration was related to antipredatory behavior. Male terrapins with a greater extent of black coloration in their shells demonstrated shorter appearance times after a predator attack. However, this pattern was significant only when turtles were subjected to a high risk. In addition, darker turtles had longer latency times in a novel environment. The results of the present study support the hypothesis that melanin‐based coloration may be associated with some behavioral functions. Our study provides a good framework for future studies concerning the effect of melanin‐coloration on multiple behavioral traits that could be applied to further research using other animal models.  相似文献   

9.
    
Several studies have shown that melanin‐based traits play a crucial role in social contexts as they are associated with dominance, personality and social behaviour. However, most of these studies have focused on adults, and the role of these traits in juveniles has rarely been explored. Here, we explore the association between two melanin‐based traits and nestling personality in Common Kestrels Falco tinnunculus. Our results show that female nestlings with blacker plumages displayed bolder personalities, providing evidence of sex‐dependent phenotypic integration of these two traits in males and females. We consider that this differential integration may arise from different selection pressures acting on males and females on plumage coloration during adulthood and that nestling coloration can act as a status signal within the juvenile age‐class.  相似文献   

10.
    
Understanding the origin and persistence of phenotypic variation within and among populations is a major goal in evolutionary biology. However, the eagerness to find unadulterated explanatory models in combination with difficulties in publishing replicated studies may lead to severe underestimations of the complexity of selection patterns acting in nature. One striking example is variation in plumage coloration in birds, where the default adaptive explanation often is that brightly colored individuals signal superior quality across environmental conditions and therefore always should be favored by directional mate choice. Here, we review studies on the proximate determination and adaptive function of coloration traits in male pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca). From numerous studies, we can conclude that the dark male color phenotype is adapted to a typical northern climate and functions as a dominance signal in male–male competition over nesting sites, and that the browner phenotypes are favored by relaxed intraspecific competition with more dominant male collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis) in areas where the two species co‐occur. However, the role of avoidance of hybridization in driving character displacement in plumage between these two species may not be as important as initially thought. The direction of female choice on male coloration in pied flycatchers is not simply as opposite in direction in sympatry and allopatry as traditionally expected, but varies also in relation to additional contexts such as climate variation. While some of the heterogeneity in the observed relationships between coloration and fitness probably indicate type 1 errors, we strongly argue that environmental heterogeneity and context‐dependent selection play important roles in explaining plumage color variation in this species, which probably also is the case in many other species studied in less detail.  相似文献   

11.
    
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12.
    
Sexually selected signals are theoretically expected to exhibit heightened condition dependence compared to non‐signaling traits. This link to condition enables sexual signals to provide information regarding individual quality and also provides a mechanism that allows animals to develop signals that accurately reflect their abilities. Most previous work on sexual signal condition dependence has focused on signals that have clear developmental costs, while less is known about the development of other types of quality signals. Male Polistes dominulus paper wasps have yellow‐on‐black abdominal spots that are important signals during female choice and male–male competition. These signals lack obvious production costs, as males are covered in yellow and black patterns composed of the same pigments. Here, we assess signal condition dependence by testing whether larval diet has a stronger influence on the development of male spots than on the development of control traits composed of the same pigments. Males reared on ad libitum diets developed elliptical spots similar to those seen on dominant, attractive males, while males reared on restricted diets developed irregularly shaped spots similar to those seen on subordinate, unattractive males. Remarkably, the development of a control trait composed of the same yellow and black pigments was not influenced by larval diet. Therefore, sexually selected signals can be developmentally decoupled from traits comprised of the same pigments. Condition dependence of sexually selected signals is likely to be a widespread solution to the challenge of developing sexually selected signals that accurately convey information about individual quality.  相似文献   

13.
    
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) constitutes a major public health threat worldwide, accounting for 17.3 million deaths annually. Heart disease and stroke account for the majority of healthcare costs in the developed world. While much has been accomplished in understanding the pathophysiology, molecular biology and genetics underlying the diagnosis and treatment of CVD, we know less about the role of epigenetics and their molecular determinants. The impact of environmental changes and epigenetics in CVD is now emerging as critically important in understanding the origin of disease and the development of new therapeutic approaches to prevention and treatment. This review focuses on the emerging role of epigenetics mediated by insulin like‐growth factors‐I and ‐II in major CVDs such as heart failure, cardiac hypertrophy and diabetes.  相似文献   

14.
Butterflies have evolved a diversity of color patterns, but the ecological functions for most of these patterns are still poorly understood. The Banded Swallowtail butterfly, Papilio demolion demolion, is a mostly black butterfly with a greenish‐blue band that traverses the wings. The function of this wing pattern remains unknown. Here, we examined the morphology of black and green‐blue colored scales, and how the color and banding pattern affects predation risk in the wild. The protective benefits of the transversal band and of its green‐blue color were tested via the use of paper model replicas of the Banded Swallowtail with variations in band shape and band color in a full factorial design. A variant model where the continuous transversal green‐blue band was shifted and made discontinuous tested the protective benefit of the transversal band, while grayscale variants of the wildtype and distorted band models assessed the protective benefit of the green‐blue color. Paper models of the variants and the wildtype were placed simultaneously in the field with live baits. Wildtype models were the least preyed upon compared with all other variants, while gray models with distorted bands suffered the greatest predation. The color and the continuous band of the Banded Swallowtail hence confer antipredator qualities. We propose that the shape of the band hinders detection of the butterfly's true shape through coincident disruptive coloration; while the green color of the band prevents detection of the butterfly from its background via differential blending. Differential blending is aided by the green‐blue color being due to pigments rather than via structural coloration. Both green and black scales have identical structures, and the scales follow the Bauplan of pigmented scales documented in other Papilio butterflies.  相似文献   

15.
    
When confronted with similar environmental challenges, different organisms can exhibit dissimilar phenotypic responses. Therefore, understanding patterns of phenotypic divergence for closely related species requires considering distinct evolutionary histories. Here, we investigated how a common form of human‐induced environmental alteration, habitat fragmentation, may drive phenotypic divergence among three closely related species of Bahamian mosquitofish (Gambusia spp.). Focusing on one phenotypic trait (male coloration), having a priori predictions of divergence, we tested whether populations persisting in fragmented habitats differed from those inhabiting unfragmented habitats and examined the consistency of the pattern across species. Species exhibited both shared and unique patterns of phenotypic divergence between the two types of habitats, with shared patterns representing the stronger effect. For all species, populations in fragmented habitats had fewer dorsal‐fin spots. In contrast, the magnitude and trajectory of divergence in dorsal‐fin color, a sexually selected trait, differed among species. We identified fragmentation‐mediated increased turbidity as a possible driver of these trait shifts. These results suggest that even closely related species can exhibit diverse phenotypic responses when encountering similar human‐mediated selection regimes. This element of unpredictability complicates forecasting the phenotypic responses of wild organisms faced with anthropogenic change – an important component of biological conservation and ecosystem management.  相似文献   

16.
    
Parasites are major effectors of natural selection and also play a role in sexual selection processes. Haemosporidian blood parasites are common in vertebrates and have been shown to vary in their effects depending on both the parasite and host species, on the host trait investigated as well as on host condition and stage of infection. Here we investigated infection of adult barn swallows Hirundo rustica by Plasmodium, Leucocytozoon and Haemoproteus species during the chronic stage of infection and the consequences for host fitness traits. Prevalence was higher than 10% only for Plasmodium. Chronic stage infection by Plasmodium was associated with reduced female breeding success, but did not affect breeding dates. Infection did not affect the expression of male secondary sexual traits (tail length and melanin‐based plumage coloration), but was associated with paler coloration of females. Finally, we found a negative effect of infection by Plasmodium on feather growth rate in older but not in yearling individuals. Because feathers are moulted during wintering in sub‐Saharan Africa where infection of barn swallows by Plasmodium occurs, our results suggest that male secondary sexual traits have little potential to reveal acute‐stage infection whereas plumage coloration of females may advertise their infection status. In addition, these results suggest that infection by Plasmodium can influence the course of plumage moult. Thus, our results add to the observations of negative effects of haemosporidian infection on fitness traits in birds and provides evidence that these effects can vary among traits and in relation to age and sex.  相似文献   

17.
18.
    
Males and females share most of their genome and develop many of the same traits. However, each sex frequently has different optimal values for these shared traits, creating intralocus sexual conflict. This conflict has been observed in wild and laboratory populations of insects and affects important evolutionary processes such as sexual selection, the maintenance of genetic variation, and possibly even speciation. Given the broad impacts of intralocus conflict, accurately detecting and measuring it is important. A common way to detect intralocus sexual conflict is to calculate the intersexual genetic correlation for fitness, with negative values suggesting conflict. Here, we highlight a potential confounder of this measure—cytoplasmic incompatibility caused by the intracellular parasite Wolbachia. Infection with Wolbachia can generate negative intersexual genetic correlations for fitness in insects, suggestive of intralocus sexual conflict. This is because cytoplasmic incompatibility reduces the fitness of uninfected females mated to infected males, while uninfected males will not suffer reductions in fitness if they mate with infected females and may even be fitter than infected males. This can lead to strong negative intersexual genetic correlations for fitness, mimicking intralocus conflict. We illustrate this issue using simulations and then present Drosophila simulans data that show how reproductive incompatibilities caused by Wolbachia infection can generate signals of intralocus sexual conflict. Given that Wolbachia infection in insect populations is pervasive, but populations usually contain both infected and uninfected individuals providing scope for cytoplasmic incompatibility, this is an important consideration for sexual conflict research but one which, to date, has been largely underappreciated.  相似文献   

19.
    
Telomeres, nucleoprotein structures at the ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes, are crucial for the maintenance of genome integrity. In most plants, telomeres consist of conserved tandem repeat units comprising the TTTAGGG motif. Recently, non‐canonical telomeres were described in several plants and plant taxons, including the carnivorous plant Genlisea hispidula (TTCAGG/TTTCAGG), the genus Cestrum (Solanaceae; TTTTTTAGGG), and plants from the Asparagales order with either a vertebrate‐type telomere repeat TTAGGG or Allium genus‐specific CTCGGTTATGGG repeat. We analyzed epigenetic modifications of telomeric histones in plants with canonical and non‐canonical telomeres, and further in telomeric chromatin captured from leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana transiently transformed by telomere CRISPR‐dCas9‐eGFP, and of Arabidopsis thaliana stably transformed with TALE_telo C‐3×GFP. Two combinatorial patterns of telomeric histone modifications were identified: (i) an Arabidopsis‐like pattern (A. thaliana, G. hispidula, Genlisea nigrocaulis, Allium cepa, Narcissus pseudonarcissus, Petunia hybrida, Solanum tuberosum, Solanum lycopersicum) with telomeric histones decorated predominantly by H3K9me2; (ii) a tobacco‐like pattern (Nicotiana tabacum, N. benthamiana, C. elegans) with a strong H3K27me3 signal. Our data suggest that epigenetic modifications of plant telomere‐associated histones are related neither to the sequence of the telomere motif nor to the lengths of the telomeres. Nor the phylogenetic position of the species plays the role; representatives of the Solanaceae family are included in both groups. As both patterns of histone marks are compatible with fully functional telomeres in respective plants, we conclude that the described specific differences in histone marks are not critical for telomere functions.  相似文献   

20.
    
Recent research indicates that low genetic variation in individuals can increase susceptibility to parasite infection, yet evidence from natural invertebrate populations remains scarce. Here, we studied the relationship between genetic heterozygosity, measured as AFLP‐based inbreeding coefficient fAFLP, and gregarine parasite burden from eleven damselfly, Calopteryx splendens, populations. We found that in the studied populations, 5–92% of males were parasitized by endoparasitic gregarines (Apicomplexa: Actinocephalidae). Number of parasites ranged from none to 47 parasites per male, and parasites were highly aggregated in a few hosts. Mean individual fAFLP did not differ between populations. Moreover, we found a positive association between individual's inbreeding coefficient and parasite burden. In other words, the more homozygous the individual, the more parasites it harbours. Thus, parasites are likely to pose strong selection pressure against inbreeding and homozygosity. Our results support the heterozygosity‐fitness correlation hypothesis, which suggests the importance of heterozygosity for an individual's pathogen resistance.  相似文献   

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