Mate-choice copying: a fitness-enhancing behavior that evolves by indirect selection

• Articles in SCI Journals
• Mar, 2017

Summary:

A spatially explicit, individual-based simulation model is used to study the spread of an allele for mate-choice copying (MCC) through horizontal cultural transmission when female innate preferences do or do not coevolve with a male viability-increasing trait. Evolution of MCC is unlikely when innate female preferences coevolve with the trait, as copier females cannot express a higher preference than non-copier females for high-fitness males. However, if a genetic polymorphism for innate preference persists in the population, MCC can evolve by indirect selection through hitchhiking: the copying allele hitchhikes on the male trait. MCC can be an adaptive behavior –i.e., a behavior that increases a population's average fitness relative to populations without MCC–, even though the copying allele itself may be neutral or mildly deleterious.

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http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evo.13235/full