Dimensionality of mate choice, sexual isolation, and speciation.

ABSTRACT: Multiple cues, across multiple sensory modalities, are involved in mate choice in a wide range of animal taxa. This multiplicity leads to the prediction that, in adaptive radiations, sexual isolation results from divergence in multiple dimensions. However, difficulties in directly measuring preferences and detecting multiple effects limit our ability to empirically assess the number of independent traits contributing to mate choice and sexual isolation. We present an approach to estimate the dimensionality of sexual isolation using mating trials across groups of related populations. We analyze nine radiations: seven in fruit flies (Drosophila) and one each in salamanders (Desmognathus) and cichlid fishes (Pseudotropheus). We find strong evidence that multiple latent traits--linear combinat

SUBMITTER: Hohenlohe PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2944706 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature