Stochasticity in Sexual Selection Enables Divergence: Implications for Moth Pheromone Evolution

Sexual selection has long been hypothesized to lead to allopatric speciation, and one possible mechanism for this is that its interaction with stochasticity, which perturbs the trait and preference equilibria, can result in different traits being preferred in different populations. Here we specifica...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEvolutionary biology Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 271 - 281
Main Authors Bergen, Elizabeth L., Rowell, Jonathan T., Gould, Fred, Servedio, Maria R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston Springer US 01.06.2012
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Analysis
Animal Genetics and Genomics
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Developmental Biology
Divergence
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Human Genetics
Life Sciences
Natural selection
Population genetics
Preferences
Research Article
Sexual selection
Stochasticity
Genetic drift
Moth
Population genetic model
Sexual selection
Stochasticity
Speciation
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Summary:Sexual selection has long been hypothesized to lead to allopatric speciation, and one possible mechanism for this is that its interaction with stochasticity, which perturbs the trait and preference equilibria, can result in different traits being preferred in different populations. Here we specifically examine the role that stochastic changes in sexual selection strength plays in the shift of predominance between pairs of preferences and traits within a single population. We first create a single-locus null model of stochasticity during frequency dependent selection and then compare it to a two-locus population genetic model with stochastic strengths of female preferences for male traits. We find some interesting differences between the two models, primarily that in the two-locus sexual selection model shifts between preference and trait regimes occur more often with both weak and strong preferences, compared to intermediate preference strengths. We discuss the implications of our results for the evolution of pheromone blends and male responses during speciation in moths, a case that seems to match the assumptions of our model.
ISSN:0071-3260
1934-2845
DOI:10.1007/s11692-012-9176-5