Assortative mating and mate-choice contributes to the maintenance of a developmental dimorphism in Streblospio benedicti.

ABSTRACT: Assortative mating, where individuals non-randomly mate with respect to phenotype or genotype, can occur when preferences between potential mates have evolved. When such mate preferences occur in a population it can drive evolutionary and phenotypic divergence. But the extent to which assortative mating, mate preference, and development are evolutionarily linked remains unclear. Here we use Streblospio benedicti, a marine annelid with a rare developmental dimorphism, to investigate if mate-choice could contribute to developmental evolution. For S. benedicti two types of ecologically and phenotypically similar adults persist in natural populations, but they give rise to distinctly different offspring with alternative life-histories. This dimorphism persists despite the absence of post-zygot

SUBMITTER: Ruskie EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10525012 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature