 Gametic conflict versus contact in the evolution of anisogamyPriya Iyer and Joan Roughgarden Theoretical Population Biology, 2008, vol. 73, issue 4, 461-472 Abstract: Anisogamy refers to gametes that differ in size, and characterizes the difference between males and females. The evolution of aniosgamy is widely interpreted as involving conflict between gamete producers with small sperm parasitizing on the investment made by the eggs. Using a population genetic model for evolution at a locus that codes jointly for sperm and egg sizes of a hermaphrodite, we show that the origin of anisogamy in an externally spawning population need not involve conflict between gamete producers. Gamete size dimorphism may be an adaptation that increases gamete encounter rates when large zygotes are selected, and we show this in a mechanistically general individual selection model. We use the Vance survival function without specific allometric assumptions to model the zygote fitness dependence on its size, and hence obtain ecological and life-history correlates of isogamy and anisogamy, which we successfully compare with data from Volvocales. Keywords: Isogamy; Anisogamy; Gamete size; Zygote size; Zygote growth; Zygote mortality; Volvocales; Sexual conflict; Social selection theory (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:73:y:2008:i:4:p:461-472 DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2008.02.002 Access Statistics for this article Theoretical Population Biology is currently edited by Jeremy Van Cleve More articles in Theoretical Population Biology from Elsevier |
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