Mideo Lectures Flashcards
What is plasticity?
environmental effects that change the appearance of a phenotype without changing the genotype
What is the reaction norm?
the pattern of phenotypic expression of a single genotype across a range of environments
Why do bees/wasps display drunken behaviour in the fall?
in the fall the insects adapt to locating ripened fruit that have ethanol in their nectar
What is “Z=G+E”?
phenotype = genes + environment
What criteria are required for a population to undergo evolution by natural selection?
genetically based trait variation, variation in trait fitness
What is the rover/sitter polymorphism?
polymorphism for foraging behaviour in drosophila where rover individuals forage in more places and sitter individuals forage more in one place
Who discovered the rover/sitter polymorphism and when?
Marla Sokolowski, early 1980’s
What is the genetic basis for the rover/sitter polymorphism?
variation in cGMP dependent protein kinase, enzyme in cell signalling in the gut (ROVER = DOMINANT ALLELE)
What behaviour do rovers and sitters display in a low-food environment?
Both genotypes move less, rovers will slowly behave more like sitters
What behaviour do rovers and sitters display in a patchy food environment?
rovers eat less but explore more food patches than sitters
What changes occur in daphnia in a high predator environment?
they grow pointed helmets (think Germany WW1)
What changes in tadpoles occur in harsh environments?
they start to display cannibalism, increased size
What is anisogamy?
unequally sized gametes in males and females
What is parental investment theory?
sexes differ in how much effort/resources they invest in their offspring; the sex that invests less will compete for mating with the sex that invests more
What trend is shown in the Bateman curves?
possible number of offspring in males is limited to egg accessibility, possible number of offspring for females is limited to resource accessibility and number of eggs inseminated
What are examples of precopulatory competition behaviours?
fighting, territoriality, social status
What are examples of postcopulatory competition behaviours?
mate guarding, sperm removal/copulation duration, sperm plug, traumatic insemination, anti-aphrodisiacs
What competition behaviour do elephant seals display?
fight for better beaches and dominance on a beach, dominant males on better beaches reproduce the most
What competition behaviour do dragon/damselflies display?
females store sperm in abdomen while males guard them, males hold females until stored sperm inseminates egg, males can remove sperm from the female storage organ,
What competition behaviour do bluegill sunfish display?
larger males guard females and fertilized eggs (eggs are externally fertilized), smaller males pretend to be females and shoot sperm unexpectedly
What are the three strategies of the blue, yellow, and orange side blotched lizard?
orange: aggressive to all, defend large territories
blue: defend small territories, root out yellow males
yellow: mimic throat colour and behaviour of receptive females to deceive and out compete orange males
What is the difference between the results of reproductive success of males and females?
successful males out compete other males resulting in a higher variance of reproductive success among males, successful females do not affect the success of other females resulting in a lower variance in females
What happens to the variance of male reproductive success if postnatal care by females is large?
expected large, more females will be occupied with previous offspring and have less time to mate with new males
What is Fisherian Arbitrary Choice?
females can evolve to choose an arbitrary trait among males as desirable, resulting in a positive feedback loop and exaggerated forms of that trait
What is a harem?
a group of females associated with mating with a single male that usually protects them
What is a lek?
a system of mating where males aggregating is thought to attract more females than one male would alone
What is resource defence polygamy?
a mating system where males establish a territory around resources allowing more than one female to occupy that territory at once
What is polyandry?
a mating system where one female mates with multiple males
What is the difference between social and serial monogamy?
serial monogamy allows one mate per mating season but that mate can change each new season; social monogamy is the behavioural pairing of one male and one female
What is the courtship display of the male bowerbird?
males create colourful bowers that the females inspect and if they like the bower they will choose that male to mate with
What is an example of a species that uses the lek mating system?
sage grouse
What were the results of the tail manipulation of widow birds experiment?
reduced tails decrease mating success, elongated tails increase mating success, sham surgeries have no effect on mating success
What aspect of peacock tails was preferred by female peacocks?
eyespots
What sort of calls do female tungara frogs prefer?
whining to attract females and complex chucks for courtship displays
Why do not all tungara frogs make chucks?
chucks also attract predators
What is the mating method of the katydid and mormon cricket?
spermatophore transferred to female during mating that contains a lot of nutrients for the female
What is the mating method of the hanging fly?
attracts females using pheromones, courts female with display of resource access, while female eats copulation occurs
What is the reproductive method of the pipefish?
females insert eggs into males brood pouch where they are fertilized and held until they are born causing role reversal and female competition
What is the affect of resource abundance on katydid sex roles?
when food is abundant, females do not need males for resources so males will want to create most rich territory; when resources are low, females need males for food and will compete with each other for territories allowing fro male choice
What is a desirable physical trait in humans?
symmetrical facial features
What is MHC (HLA in humans)?
Locus coding for antigen recognition for immune response, more diversity at this locus, the better for everyone
How do mice/humans choose mates with regards to MHC/HLA?
females can use scent to determine MHC/HLA and prefer mates with alleles of this gene that are different from their own (using birth control alters female human choice)
What is an alarm call behaviour?
individual guards others and makes calls if there is a predator which puts it in danger but can save the rest of the group
What is cooperative breeding?
behaviour where some individuals in a population do not mate but help others with mating and parenting
What is eusociality?
societies/populations that have multiple generations living there at the same time
What is game theory?
Cold war theory explaining how aggressive behaviour can be beneficial in certain situations and less beneficial in others (Hawk/Dove example)
What are the results of using defecting/cooperating mirrors in observing predator inspection behaviour in guppies?
When the “partner” guppie (reflection) deflects, the subject does not inspect the predator but when it cooperates the subject will inspect the predator
What is kin selection?
Altruistic behaviour directed at genetically similar kin