DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The consequences and mechanisms of sexual selection in Drosophila melanogaster

Florida State University, Tallahassee FL

Investigators

Abstract

This project will use the Drosophila melanogaster model system to address two fundamental questions in the study of sexual selection. First, what is the effect of sexual selection on a population's ability to adapt? Second, what male traits are under sexual selection and how are these traits formed? The presence or absence of female choice and male-male competition will be manipulated experimentally in a laboratory evolution experiment. Fitness and traits will be measured in the experimentally evolved populations and in the ancestral laboratory population to assess which trait values confer higher fitness and how sexual selection can change these trait optima. The results of this research will help to clarify whether sexual selection has a positive or negative effect on adaptation in natural populations. Undergraduates will participate in the project and will conduct related independent research projects and will learn techniques of experimental design and data analysis. This project begins a collaboration between biologists and chemists.