SEX SEL - VAR

Sexual selection - How is variation maintained?

 Coordinatore WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY 

 Organization address address: DROEVENDAALSESTEEG 4
city: WAGENINGEN
postcode: 6708 PB

contact info
Titolo: Mrs.
Nome: Gerda
Cognome: Bakker
Email: send email
Telefono: +31 317 483382

 Nazionalità Coordinatore Netherlands [NL]
 Totale costo 100˙000 €
 EC contributo 100˙000 €
 Programma FP7-PEOPLE
Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)
 Code Call FP7-PEOPLE-2012-CIG
 Funding Scheme MC-CIG
 Anno di inizio 2013
 Periodo (anno-mese-giorno) 2013-09-01   -   2017-08-31

 Partecipanti

# participant  country  role  EC contrib. [€] 
1    WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY

 Organization address address: DROEVENDAALSESTEEG 4
city: WAGENINGEN
postcode: 6708 PB

contact info
Titolo: Mrs.
Nome: Gerda
Cognome: Bakker
Email: send email
Telefono: +31 317 483382

NL (WAGENINGEN) coordinator 100˙000.00

Mappa


 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

sexual    benefits    genetic    question    preference    variation    answer    maintained    mate    evolutionary    animal   

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Across the animal kingdom, striking displays and ornaments are produced by sexual selection. Current thinking is that females choose the most elaborate males because they display genetic benefits to offspring. However, this should lead to a rapid decline in genetic variation within species. Variation between individuals is the raw material upon which selection acts, so how is this variation maintained? Solving this ‘paradox of the lek’ continues to be one of the most contentious issues in evolutionary ecology.

This proposal suggests that three important factors have been overlooked in the study of sexual selection. First, individual differences in mate preference function for direct verses indirect benefits are expected to vary with the choosers own phenotype, and thus serve to maintain variation within populations. Second, mutual mate choice has been neglected, and sex specific optima are expected to play a key role. Third, non-genetic parental effects are closely linked with mate preference and have huge implications for selection, but such effects are rarely considered in this context.

I propose to test how these factors influence variation using an established population of wild great tits, which are amenable to carefully controlled lab and field experiments. I will complement phenotypic studies with state-of-the-art SNP genotyping and modeling techniques to determine how the heritability of shared traits and preference functions, and selection for heterozygosity affect genetic variation. This uniquely integrative approach will answer a fundamental question in evolutionary biology: How is genetic variation maintained by sexual selection? The answer to this question is key to our understanding of evolutionary processes, the likelihood of extinction and speciation, as well as animal breeding.'

Altri progetti dello stesso programma (FP7-PEOPLE)

QUANTMEDCOMMGEO (2015)

New approaches in media and communication geography: Quantitative methods for analyzing geographical mobility

Read More  

IRONGEOBIOVENT (2009)

Iron geobiology at deep-ocean hydrothermal vents

Read More  

ALLEGRO (2013)

Biotechnological exploitation of Pseudomonas putida: Lego-lizing and refactoring central metabolic blocks through rational genome engineering

Read More