Héjja-Brichard Yseult, Renoult Julien P, Mendelson Tamra C
Department of Biological Sciences University of Maryland, Baltimore County Baltimore Maryland USA.
CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, Univ Paul-Valery Montpellier Montpellier Occitanie France.
Ecol Evol. 2024 Sep 29;14(10):e11498. doi: 10.1002/ece3.11498. eCollection 2024 Oct.
A preference for mating with conspecifics over heterospecifics is fundamental to the maintenance of species diversity in sexually reproducing organisms. This type of positive assortative preference results in sexual isolation, and a reduction in gene flow between species due to differences in mate choice. The proximate and ultimate causes of sexual isolation therefore constitute active areas of research in evolutionary biology. Sexual isolation is often stronger between closely related sympatric species as compared to allopatric species because of processes such as reinforcement. In addition, traditional theories of sexual selection suggest that because reproduction is more costly to females, they should be the choosier sex and play a more central role in sexual isolation. We conducted a comparative analysis of assortative mate preferences in males and females of sympatric and allopatric species pairs of darters (fish genus ). We performed a meta-analysis of 17 studies, encompassing 21 species, in which assortative preference was measured when fish were (in most cases) allowed only visual information. As expected, we found stronger preferences for conspecifics over heterospecifics across studies and species. However, we did not find an effect of sympatry or sex on the strength of preference for conspecifics, but rather remarkable variation across species. We offer several testable hypotheses to explain the variation we observed in the strength of assortative preference.
相较于与异种交配，与同种交配的偏好对于有性生殖生物物种多样性的维持至关重要。这种正向选型偏好会导致性隔离，并且由于配偶选择的差异，物种间的基因流动会减少。因此，性隔离的近端和远端原因构成了进化生物学中活跃的研究领域。由于诸如强化等过程，与异域物种相比，亲缘关系较近的同域物种之间的性隔离往往更强。此外，传统的性选择理论表明，由于繁殖对雌性来说成本更高，所以她们应该是更挑剔的性别，并且在性隔离中发挥更核心的作用。我们对镖鲈（鱼类属）同域和异域物种对的雄性和雌性的选型配偶偏好进行了比较分析。我们对17项研究进行了荟萃分析，涵盖21个物种，在这些研究中（在大多数情况下），当鱼类仅被给予视觉信息时测量选型偏好。正如预期的那样，我们发现在各项研究和物种中，对同种的偏好都强于对异种的偏好。然而，我们没有发现同域性或性别对同种偏好强度有影响，而是发现物种间存在显著差异。我们提出了几个可检验的假设来解释我们观察到的选型偏好强度的差异。
