Christine Boake is at the Dept of Zoology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-0810, USA.
Trends Ecol Evol. 1991 Jul;6(7):225-7. doi: 10.1016/0169-5347(91)90027-U.
The parallel evolution of senders and receivers of sexual signals has been a topic of research in both neuroethology and evolutionary quantitative genetics. Neuroethologists have debated whether the same physiological mechanism underlies both production and reception of a signal, and whether the same genes affect the physiology of communication in each sex. Quantitative geneticists have discussed the possibility that particular types of signals, and preferences for those types, are inherited together. Studies of communication by a variety of insect species do not provide strong support for a common physiological mechanism, but do not rule out the genetic effect. The neuroethological perspective may be of assistance in understanding the evolution of sexual communication because it offers a way to subdivide communication into units for genetic analysis.
性信号的发送者和接收者的平行进化一直是神经行为学和进化数量遗传学研究的课题。神经行为学家们争论的焦点是相同的生理机制是否同时存在于信号的产生和接收中，以及相同的基因是否会影响每个性别的通讯生理机能。数量遗传学家们讨论了这样一种可能性，即某些类型的信号，以及对这些类型的偏好，是一起遗传的。对各种昆虫物种的通讯研究并没有为共同的生理机制提供强有力的支持，但也不能排除遗传效应。神经行为学的观点可能有助于理解性通讯的进化，因为它提供了一种将通讯细分为遗传分析单元的方法。
