Genetic association between male attractiveness and female differential allocation.

ABSTRACT: Differential allocation of reproductive effort towards offspring of attractive mates is a form of post-copulatory mate choice. Although differential allocation has been demonstrated in many taxa, its evolutionary implications have received little attention. Theory predicts that mate choice will lead to a positive genetic correlation between female preference and male attractiveness. This prediction has been upheld for pre-copulatory mate choice, but whether such a relationship between male attractiveness and female differential allocation exists has never been tested. Here, we show that both female pre-copulatory mate choice and post-copulatory differential allocation are genetically associated with male attractiveness in house crickets, Acheta domesticus. Daughters of attractive males mat

SUBMITTER: Head ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1686179 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature