Gumm Jennifer M, Snekser Jennifer L, Iovine M Kathryn
Department of Biological Sciences, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA.
Behav Processes. 2009 Jan;80(1):35-8. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2008.09.004. Epub 2008 Sep 20.
Females often choose to associate with males that have exaggerated traits. In fishes, this may reflect an overall preference for larger size in a potential mate. Female zebrafish (Danio rerio) prefer males with larger bodies but not longer fins. The availability of mutant and transgenic strains of zebrafish make this a unique model system in which to study the role of phenotypic variation in social and sexual behavior. We used mutant strains of zebrafish with truncated (short fin) and exaggerated (long fin) fins to further examine female preferences for fin length in dichotomous association tests. Wild type females showed no preferences between wild type males and short fin mutant males or between wild type males and long fin mutant males. short fin females also showed no preference for short fin males or wild type males while long fin females preferred to associate with long fin males over wild type males. These results suggest that the single gene long fin mutation that results in altered fin morphological may also be involved in a related female association preference.
雌性通常会选择与具有夸张特征的雄性交往。在鱼类中，这可能反映出对潜在配偶较大体型的总体偏好。雌性斑马鱼（Danio rerio）更喜欢体型较大的雄性，但对鳍较长的雄性没有偏好。斑马鱼突变体和转基因品系的可得性使其成为研究表型变异在社会行为和性行为中作用的独特模型系统。我们使用鳍被截断（短鳍）和夸张（长鳍）的斑马鱼突变品系，在二分关联测试中进一步研究雌性对鳍长度的偏好。野生型雌性在野生型雄性与短鳍突变体雄性之间，或野生型雄性与长鳍突变体雄性之间没有偏好。短鳍雌性对短鳍雄性或野生型雄性也没有偏好，而长鳍雌性更喜欢与长鳍雄性而非野生型雄性交往。这些结果表明，导致鳍形态改变的单基因长鳍突变可能也与相关的雌性交往偏好有关。
