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Change in male coloration associated with artificial selection on foraging colour preference

journal contribution
posted on 2018-08-01, 00:00 authored by Gemma Cole, John EndlerJohn Endler
Sensory drive proposes that natural selection on nonmating behaviours (e.g. foraging preferences) alters sensory system properties and results in a correlated effect on mating preferences and subsequently sexual traits. In colour-based systems, we can test this by selecting on nonmating colour preferences and testing for responses in colour-based female preferences and male sexual coloration. In guppies (Poecilia reticulata), individual functional links of sensory drive have been demonstrated providing an opportunity to test the process over more than one link. We measured male coloration and female preferences in populations previously artificially selected for colour-based foraging behaviour towards two colours, red and blue. We found associated changes in male coloration in the expected direction as well as weak changes in female preferences. Our results can be explained by a correlated response in female preferences due to artificial selection on foraging preferences that are mediated by a shared sensory system or by other mechanisms such as colour avoidance, pleiotropy or social experiences. This is the first experimental evidence that selection on a nonmating behaviour can affect male coloration and, more weakly, female preferences.

History

Journal

Journal of evolutionary biology

Volume

31

Issue

8

Pagination

1227 - 1238

Publisher

Wiley

Location

London, Eng.

ISSN

1010-061X

eISSN

1420-9101

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2018, European Society for Evolutionary Biology