Diet-dependent female choice for males with ‘good genes’ in a soil predatory mite

Izabela Lesna () and Maurice W. Sabelis
Additional contact information
Izabela Lesna: Section for Population Biology, University of Amsterdam
Maurice W. Sabelis: Section for Population Biology, University of Amsterdam

Nature, 1999, vol. 401, issue 6753, 581-584

Abstract: Abstract Female choice for mates with ‘good genes’ presupposes that some males have better genes than others1. However, the resulting selection against inferior males causes such genetic variability to disappear. This paradox may be resolved when substantial variability is maintained at a balance between selection and mutation2. Alternatively, populations may exhibit genetic polymorphisms maintained by frequency-dependent selection or hybrid vigour3,4,5,6,7,8,9. Here we show that a local population of soil predatory mites exhibits genetic variation in preference for two prey species. We find that hybrids between selected preference lines are superior or inferior in population growth rate, depending on the composition of the diet. Finally, we show that females in this population mate disassortatively when hybrids are superior, but switch to assortative mating otherwise. Thus, mate choice varies with diet and is tuned to incorporate ‘good genes’ in the offspring, that is, genes that promote the population growth rate of the offspring on the same diet as that experienced by the parents. In this way, hybrid success and mate choice act together in maintaining or eliminating genetic polymorphism in local populations.

Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/44125 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:401:y:1999:i:6753:d:10.1038_44125

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/44125

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().