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Project

The process of decision-making during female mate choice.

I want to continue the artificial selection experiment that constituted the core of my first FWO-post doc mandate. In short, the experiment involves selecting male guppies (Poecilia reticulata) for dominance and for sexual attractiveness, respectively. The project is original in that it contrasts effects of intra- and intersexual selection on male phenotypes and because of its unconventional methodology (artificial selection). The experiment is currently running at full speed and the results are highly promising. After only three generations, males from the experimental lines already differ from one another and from control lines in their colouration, morphology and behaviour. It is my intention to follow up the system for at least another three generations, to see whether the evolutionary trajectories taken continue to diverge. I also want to explore whether divergent artificial selection on malephenotypes ('dominant' versus 'attractive') induces concomitant changes in female mate choice and the mate choice mind.
Date:1 Oct 2014 →  28 Feb 2018
Keywords:FISH ECOLOGY, SEXUAL SELECTION
Disciplines:Genetics, Gynaecology and obstetrics, Molecular and cell biology, Morphological sciences
Project type:Collaboration project