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The role of sexual preferences in intrasexual female competition

BACKGROUND: While search costs have long been understood to affect the evolution of female preference, other costs associated with mating have been the focus of much less attention. Here I consider a novel mate choice cost: female-female intrasexual competition, that is, when females compete with ea...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Frame, Alicia M
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3551640/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23148567
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-12-218
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author Frame, Alicia M
author_facet Frame, Alicia M
author_sort Frame, Alicia M
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: While search costs have long been understood to affect the evolution of female preference, other costs associated with mating have been the focus of much less attention. Here I consider a novel mate choice cost: female-female intrasexual competition, that is, when females compete with each other for mates. This competition results in cost to female fecundity, such as a reduction in fertility due to decreased direct benefits, sperm limitation, or time and resources spent competing for a mate. I asked if female-female competition affects the evolution of preferences, and further, if the presence of multiple, different, preferences in a population can reduce competitive costs. RESULTS: Using population genetic models of preference and trait evolution, I found that intrasexual competition leads to direct selection against female preferences, and restricts the parameter space under which preference may evolve. I also examined how multiple, different, preferences affected preference evolution with female intrasexual competition. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple preferences primarily serve to increase competitive costs and decrease the range of parameters under which preferences may evolve.
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spelling pubmed-35516402013-01-24 The role of sexual preferences in intrasexual female competition Frame, Alicia M BMC Evol Biol Research Article BACKGROUND: While search costs have long been understood to affect the evolution of female preference, other costs associated with mating have been the focus of much less attention. Here I consider a novel mate choice cost: female-female intrasexual competition, that is, when females compete with each other for mates. This competition results in cost to female fecundity, such as a reduction in fertility due to decreased direct benefits, sperm limitation, or time and resources spent competing for a mate. I asked if female-female competition affects the evolution of preferences, and further, if the presence of multiple, different, preferences in a population can reduce competitive costs. RESULTS: Using population genetic models of preference and trait evolution, I found that intrasexual competition leads to direct selection against female preferences, and restricts the parameter space under which preference may evolve. I also examined how multiple, different, preferences affected preference evolution with female intrasexual competition. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple preferences primarily serve to increase competitive costs and decrease the range of parameters under which preferences may evolve. BioMed Central 2012-11-14 /pmc/articles/PMC3551640/ /pubmed/23148567 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-12-218 Text en Copyright ©2012 Frame; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Frame, Alicia M
The role of sexual preferences in intrasexual female competition
title The role of sexual preferences in intrasexual female competition
title_full The role of sexual preferences in intrasexual female competition
title_fullStr The role of sexual preferences in intrasexual female competition
title_full_unstemmed The role of sexual preferences in intrasexual female competition
title_short The role of sexual preferences in intrasexual female competition
title_sort role of sexual preferences in intrasexual female competition
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3551640/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23148567
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-12-218
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