Rapid temporal change in the expression and age‐related information content of a sexually selected trait

The expression of sexual signals is often phenotypically plastic and also evolves rapidly. Few studies have considered the possibility that proximate determination – the pathway between genes and trait expression – may also be subject to both phenotypic plasticity and evolutionary change. We examine...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of evolutionary biology Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 228 - 238
Main Authors HEGYI, G., TÖRÖK, J., TÓTH, L., GARAMSZEGI, L. Z., ROSIVALL, B.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01.01.2006
Oxford University Press
Subjects
Age
Age Factors
Animal reproduction
Animals
Ankle - anatomy & histology
Aves
Birds
Body Weights and Measures
condition‐dependence
evolution
Feathers - physiology
Gene expression
Genetic diversity
Genotype & phenotype
Hungary
Inheritance Patterns - genetics
Male
ornament
Pigmentation - genetics
Pigmentation - physiology
Plasticity
Selection, Genetic
Sex Characteristics
sexual selection
Songbirds - genetics
Songbirds - physiology
Time Factors
Hungary
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Summary:The expression of sexual signals is often phenotypically plastic and also evolves rapidly. Few studies have considered the possibility that proximate determination – the pathway between genes and trait expression – may also be subject to both phenotypic plasticity and evolutionary change. We examined long‐term patterns in size, condition‐ and age‐dependence, repeatability and heritability of forehead patch size, a sexually selected plumage trait in male collared flycatchers. We also estimated survival and sexual selection on the phenotypic value of the trait. Forehead patch size linearly declined during the 15 years, probably due to the significantly negative survival selection. In addition, the expression of genetic variation for the ornament apparently underwent an age‐limited change, which implies a change in the information content of the signal to receivers. The persistent lack of condition‐dependence makes phenotypic plasticity an unlikely explanation to our results. This raises the possibility of a microevolutionary change of both expression and proximate determination during the study period.
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ISSN:1010-061X
1420-9101
DOI:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2005.00970.x