Sex-linked genomic variation and its relationship to avian plumage dichromatism and sexual selection.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Sexual dichromatism is the tendency for sexes to differ in color pattern and represents a striking form of within-species morphological variation. Conspicuous intersexual differences in avian plumage are generally thought to result from Darwinian sexual selection, to the extent that dichromatism is often treated as a surrogate for the intensity of sexual selection in phylogenetic comparative studies. Intense sexual selection is predicted to leave a footprint on genetic evolution by reducing the relative genetic diversity on sex chromosome to that on the autosomes.

Results

In this study, we test the association between plumage dichromatism and sex-linked genetic diversity using eight species pairs with contrasting levels of dichromatism. We estimated Z-linked and a

SUBMITTER: Huang H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4574164 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature