Diet-based assortative mating through sexual imprinting.

ABSTRACT: Speciation is facilitated by "magic traits," where divergent natural selection on such traits also results in assortative mating. In animal populations, diet has the potential to act as a magic trait if populations diverge in consumed food that incidentally affects mating and therefore sexual isolation. While diet-based assortative mating has been observed in the laboratory and in natural populations, the mechanisms causing positive diet-based assortment remain largely unknown. Here, we experimentally created divergent diets in a sexually imprinting species of mouse, Peromyscus gossypinus (the cotton mouse), to test the hypothesis that sexual imprinting on diet could be a mechanism that generates rapid and significant sexual isolation. We provided breeding pairs with novel garlic- o

SUBMITTER: Delaney EK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6854104 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature