Speaker

Dr. Sue Bertram

Title

"Maintenance of Genetic Variation Via Sex-Limited Temporally Fluctuating Selection"(joint work with Root Gorlick)

Abstract

Understanding why fitness-conferring traits exhibit high levels of genetic variation is a fundamental problem in evolutionary biology. We hypothesizes that genetic variation in sex-limited behavioral traits can be partially explained by sex-limited temporally fluctuating selection, in which genes coding for that trait remain unexpressed in the other sex and are therefore hidden from selection. A genetic storage effect results, where disadvantageous genes remain in the population to respond to favorable selection in future generations. Our hypothesis is supported in two ways: (1) our recursive algebraic model indicates genetic variation maintenance under an array of selective regimes, and (2) our field studies suggest sexually selected traits respond to shifts in sex-limited selection.