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Direct and indirect selection in moth pheromone evolution: population genetical simulations of asymmetric sexual interactions

Author

Summary, in English

Female moths generally use pheromones to attract males. Normally, all females in a population produce a specific chemical blend with only a limited variance, and the local males are highly attracted to this blend. To better understand the direct and indirect selective forces acting on this communication system, where, unusually, it is the reproductively limited sex that signals for matings, a population genetical model has been constructed and numerically analysed. Basic to the model is the assumption that the pheromone attraction system functions asymmetrically, leading to strong sexual selection between males but no direct sexual selection between females. Evolutionary simulations using the model show that sexual selection in males causes an indirect stabilizing selection on the pheromone blends produced by females. Thus, a more narrow range of pheromone variation is selected for, even in the absence of female sexual selection. The strength of the selection is analysed, and it is suggested that this indirect stabilizing selection becomes particularly important in situations where geographically adjacent populations have evolved different pheromone blends.

Department/s

Publishing year

2007

Language

English

Pages

117-123

Publication/Series

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

Volume

90

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Keywords

  • computer simulation
  • sexual selection
  • evolutionary stability

Status

Published

Project

  • Evolutionary mechanisms of pheromone divergence in Lepidoptera

Research group

  • Pheromone Group
  • Evolutionary Genetics

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0024-4066