From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mate Choice
Mate Choice
Mate choice is the process in which one organism choos- 78% of their energy daily towards mate choice. Results
es another one to mate with. The overall reason for mate also suggest that assessing high quality mates are more
choice in any species is to pick a mate that can provide costly than assessing lower quality mates. This is due to
better genetic material that will produce more fit off- more time being taken to visit the higher quality mates.
spring that are more likely to survive and have offspring Not only was time lost, but also more body mass was
of their own. Mate Choice is based on the Theory of Nat- lost. In contrast, females that visited these higher quality
ural Selection. Only organisms that are well adapted to males showed a strong trend toward producing follicles
survive in the environment that they live in will survive of smaller size, which is something directly related to off-
long enough to mate and produce their own offspring, to spring survival. Even though a large percentage of ener-
pass along their traits. gy was used to choose a mate, the females did end up hav-
ing more fit offspring.
Direct and indirect benefits
Sexy Sons Hypothesis
Direct Benefits The Sexy Sons Hypothesis suggests that females obtain
Direct benefits of choosing mates affect the female di- future fitness benefits from mating with males through
rectly, such as increasing her own lifetime reproductive the inheritance of her son’s of traits.[8] Because genes are
output.[1] Females that choose males that are more able passed down from generation to generation, the proba-
to reproduce with them, then in turn increase the proba- bility of offspring to have a trait would increase greatly
bility of having more offspring that will survive.[2] if one parent or both parents had the trait to pass down.
Significant sire effects on egg to adult viability and son’s
Indirect Benefits pre-productive survival, as well as moderate to high coef-
Indirect benefits of mate choice are ones that benefit off- ficients of additive genetic variation for these traits have
spring of the organism making the choice. The organ- been found in Dung Beetles.[9] Beetles who have select-
ism chooses a mate with a particular favorable trait. This ed mates with better genetics tend to have offspring that
trait is then passed down to its offspring, benefiting the survive longer and are more able to reproduce than those
chooser directly. In some fish species, males with eggs that do not pick mates with genetic quality. This suggests
already in their nests were preferred over other males that carefully choosing a mate is beneficial.[10]
who had none. The indirect benefit that can be seen from
this example is that more offspring will survive and be
able to reproduce because the father is better at watching Types of Choice
over the eggs.[3] Choosing males that already watched
over eggs benefitted the mother indirectly because her
offspring now had a better chance to survive. Cryptic Choice
While most mate choice involves choosing of mates be-
Costs fore copulation has commenced, cryptic choice involved
selection after the organism has mated. Variation in rel-
Mate choice while it has its benefits, can be a costly un- ative male fertilization success is an important source
dertaking involving considerable expenditure of time in variance of male reproductive success.[11] The most
and energy.[4] This not only occurs in female mate prominent method of cryptic female choice is sperm
choice, but in male mate choice as well.[5] Optimal mate choice, when one male’s sperm is chosen over another
choice involves a tradeoff between the cost of selecting a male’s sperm to fertilize the female’s eggs. Sperm com-
mate and the benefit gained by mating with a preferred petition occurs when the ejaculates of two or more males
partner.[6] Costs include time and energy taken to choose compete for the fertilization of a given set of ova. In con-
the right males. Benefits include having offspring that trast cryptic female choice occurs when females them-
are more fit to survive and produce their own offspring, selves bias sperm use in favor of particular males.[12] Not
and having a mate that could potentially protect these only do the females control which sperm is used, but also
offspring better than others.[7] Mate choice is relatively the amount of sperm used. Females use both sperm dis-
costly to female marine iguanas as they spend around placement in which sperm is removed from storage by
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mate Choice
the incoming ejaculate of a copulating male, and sperm dominance, and the ability to pass along those traits to
incapacitation where incoming seminal fluids interfere offspring. Size assortive mating is one of the most com-
with resident sperm. Sperm dumping is the term used mon mating patterns in nature because of this.[15] This
to describe what the females will eventually do to used occurs in a wide range of animals from flatworms to
sperm or unused and unwanted sperm. In the spider: mammals. Size assortive mating may also result from fe-
opopae fosuma, there are several specialized muscles for males trying to match size. Prudent mate choice evolves
this function. The sperm storage site and the sperm fer- when small mates choosing larger mates would impose
tilization sites are separated from one another, allowing significant costs that outweigh the benefits of having a
females to eject sperm with the same genital mechanisms larger mate.[16] Specific size choice in sexual selection
that move stored sperm from the storage site to the fer- can lead to sexual dimorphism when the choice is only
tilization site.[13] This is primarily a function only exhib- made for one sex.[17] Male mate choice is also seen when
ited by spiders and also insects. dealing with specific size choice. When presented with
large and small potential mates, male pacific blue-eyed
Male Mate Choice/Sex Role fish spent more time and effort with the larger fe-
males.[18]
Reversal
There are certain situations in which the male is the one Sound
making the mate choice. In Polygynous societies, males Sound is another factor that can determine mate choice.
mate with multiple females. Males put forth little energy Sound is used not only to choose mates within a specific
towards mating most of the time because sperm produc- species, but is often used as a tool for species recognition
tion is easily done and large in quantity. On the other as well. In North American Tree Frogs, males form aggre-
hand females usually put a lot of energy towards mating gations and each male vocalizes from a relatively fixed
since eggs take much more energy and are a lot less ex- position during the calling period on a given night. The
pendable than sperm, which is constantly produced by female then usually moves close to or touches a calling
the body during a lifetime. Females usually end up taking male. The calls of different species are different each in
care of the young, also causing an energy imbalance be- their own ways, for example H. cinera produce unpulsed
tween the two sexes. This leaves the male better able to advertisement calls while H. versicolor readily increases
transfer genetic material between multiple females in a call duration by providing static impulses during the call.
short amount of time, allowing him to pass his genes to a This suggests that these calls are used at least partially
greater amount of offspring. Other times the number of for species recognition.[19] Females also preferred calls
females are high and the males are limited. In this case as that were at slightly different frequencies than the nor-
seen in the three spine stickleback, males choose the fe- mal frequency, around one to two kHz different. Male
males because they are the ones who have more of a se- field crickets use two acoustic signals in the context of
lection.[14] mating, one to attract females from a distance and a
courtship song when the female comes closer and makes
Evolutionary Conse- physical contact with the male.[20] Because of this mate
choice can occur at several different points. Females gen-
erally prefer the same type of frequency, and when the
quences frequency was changed on them artificially, they lost all
interest in the male. This signifies the importance of the
There are many different genetic factors that determine song on the attractiveness of the males in this species.
whether or not a male is a favorable mate to choose, or Birds are another type of animal in which songs are used
unfavorable. Actual genes cannot be seen when choos- for mate choice. In birds, males with a larger repertoire
ing mates, but there are many cues throughout the an- of songs are usually preferred. The Nutritional Strength
imal kingdom that help organisms predict the fitness of Hypothesis states that the amount of songs the bird
other organisms, making choosing mates more efficient knows is a good indicator of the bird’s quality because the
and more of a knowledgeable decision. Several factors development of the brain regions underlying song learn-
used by a wide variety of animals include: Size of mate, ing and production occurs when young birds typically
Sounds, Ornaments, Color, and dancing techniques. face nutritional and other stresses during post hatch de-
velopment. Therefore song repertoire length reflects
Size how well the bird fared during the post hatch period, and
might reflect how his offspring will fare during the post
Mates will usually choose organisms that are of larger hatch period.[21] Results show that even a relatively brief
size,
size excluding those who are smaller for a variety of period of undernutrition experienced early in life can af-
reasons. Some of these reasons include protection, more fect the outcome of song learning.
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mate Choice
Ornaments human mate choice that have no significance in the an-
imal kingdom. Money is one influence to choose a mate,
Another important factor in mate choice is ornaments and in our society it can play a rather large part. More
and their color. Ornaments come in various different wealthy individuals are usually seen as more able to pro-
forms, sizes, shapes, and colors. Depending upon the vide for one’s offspring. There is no such thing as physi-
species, the characteristics of the ornaments can be a tell cal money in the animal kingdom. Humans can also judge
tale sign towards compatibility and favorability. Resis- and measure expressed preferences before we are forced
tance to disease is a very important gene to pass down to make any choices via newspaper ads or online dating
to offspring and sometimes this characteristic can be dis- services.[28]
played by an ornament. During the breeding season, male
red jungle fowls with large combs, a sexually preferred
trait, have lower levels of lymphocytes, but greater cell-
mediated immunity indicated by a cutaneous hypersen-
See Also
sitivity response. Before the breeding season, both lym- • Sexual selection
phocyte proportion and cell-mediated immunity are pos- • Sexual conflict
itively associated with comb length.[22] A female in mak- • Polygyny
ing a mate choice obviously wants their offspring to have • Monogyny
better immunity against pathogens, so therefore will • Cryptic Choice
pick a mate who displays these characteristics over one
that does not. Organisms often do not have only one or-
nament to display. The California Quail has: a crest, cap
References
patch, white band, blue breast, black patch, tan patch, [1] Alcock, Jonathon (2009). Animal Behavior, Ninth
and a brown patch. Females choose their mates in this in- edition. Integrative and Comparative Biology.
stance from a combination of different features that dif- ISBN 10.1093/icb/icp058.
fer based upon their personal preference.[23] [2] Kokko, H; Brooks, Jennions, Morley (2003). "The
evolution of mate choice and mating biases".
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B:
Mate Choice Copying Biological Sciences 270 (1515): 653–664. doi:10.1098/
rspb.2002.2235. PMC 1691281. PMID 12769467.
Mate choice copying[24] is when one organism observes http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/
and copies the mate choice of others. This occurs when articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1691281.
mate choice is costly. This will increase the probability [3] Forsgren, E (1997). "Female sand gobies prefer good
of a mate being picked since the organism is copying fathers over dominant males". Proceedings of the
something that a successful mate performed. This allows Royal Society 264 (1368): 1283–1286. doi:10.1098/
a trait to spread non genetically. Male deep-snouted rspb.1997.0177.
pipefish exhibit this characteristic to enhance their own [4] Wong, B; Jennions (2003). "Costs influence male
fitness.[25] Females did not choose based upon observa- mate choice in a freshwater fish". Proceedings of the
tions of other females in this study. There is a higher rate Royal Society of London 270 (1): S36-S38. doi:10.1098/
of copying characteristics, than original characteristics rsbl.2003.0003.
being present. Females could not tell the difference be- [5] Wong, B; Jennions (2003). "Costs influence male
tween the two. mate choice in a freshwater fish". Proceedings of the
Royal Society of London 270 (1): S36-S38. doi:10.1098/
rsbl.2003.0003.
Human Mate Choice [6] Vitousek, M; Mitchell, Woakes, Niemack, Wikelski
(2007). "High costs of female choice in a lekking
Human beings also exhibit mate choice. There is substan- lizard". PloS one 2 (6). doi:10.1371/
tial evidence that in human mate choice, females direct- journal.pone.0000567.
ly select males based on male display of both physical [7] Vitousek, M; Mitchell, Woakes, Niemack, Wikelski
and behavioral traits.[26] In humans, the main form of (2007). "High costs of female choice in a lekking
attractiveness is the face, often the first thing that we lizard". PloS one 2 (6). doi:10.1371/
look at on another person and one of the only truly ex- journal.pone.0000567.
posed parts of the body. The parasite theory of sexual se- [8] Gwinner, H; Schwabl (2005). "Evidence for sexy
lection, states that men would prefer average and sym- sons in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)".
metrical faces in women, and that women would prefer Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 58 (4): 375–382.
largeness of the secondary sexual traits of the male’s doi:10.1007/s00265-005-0948-0.
face.[27] There are several other factors that influence
3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mate Choice
[9] Garcia-Gonzalez, F; Simmons. "Good Genes and [20] Rebar, D; Bailey, Zuk (2009). "Courtship songʼs role
Sexual Selection in Dung Beetles (Onthophagus during female mate choice in the field cricket
taurus): Genetic Variance in Egg-to-Adult and Teleogryllus oceanicus". Behavioral Ecology 20 (6):
Adult Viability". PLoS ONE 6 (1). doi:10.1371/ 1307–1314.
journal.pone.0016233. [21] Nowicki (2002). "Brain development, song learning
[10] Garcia-Gonzalez, F; Simmons. "Good Genes and and mate choice in birds: a review and
Sexual Selection in Dung Beetles (Onthophagus experimental test of the "nutritional stress
taurus): Genetic Variance in Egg-to-Adult and hypothesis"". Journal of Comparative Physiology A:
Adult Viability". PLoS ONE 6 (1). doi:10.1371/ Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral
journal.pone.0016233. Physiology 188 (11): 1003–1014. doi:10.1007/
[11] Edvardsson, M; Göran (2000). "Copulatory s00359-002-0361-3.
courtship and cryptic female choice in red flour [22] Zuk, M; Johnsen (1998). "Seasonal changes in the
beetles Tribolium castaneum". Proceedings of the relationship between ornamentation and immune
Royal Society of London 267 (1443): 559–563. response in red jungle fowl.". Proceedings of the
doi:10.1098/rspb.2000.1037. Royal Society of London 265 (1406): 1631–1635.
[12] Pilastro, A; Simonato, Bisazza, Evans (2004). doi:10.1098/rspb.1998.0481.
"CRYPTIC FEMALE PREFERENCE FOR COLORFUL [23] Calkins, D; Burley (2003). "Mate choice for multiple
MALES IN GUPPIES". Evolution 58 (3): 665–669. ornaments in the California quail, Callipepla
doi:10.1111/j.0014-3820.2004.tb01690.x. californica". Animal Behaviour. doi:10.1006/
[13] Burger, M.; Nentwig, Kropf (2003). "Complex anbe.2002.2041.
genital structures indicate cryptic female choice in [24] Widemo, M (2005). "Male but not female pipefish
a haplogyne spider (arachnida, araneae, oonopidae, copy mate choice". Behavioral Ecology 17 (2):
gamasomorphinae)". Journal of Morphology 1 (255): 255–259. doi:10.1093/beheco/arj021.
80–93. doi:10.1002/jmor.10048. [25] Widemo, M (2005). "Male but not female pipefish
[14] Sargent, R; Berghe (1986). Male Mate Choice in Fishes. copy mate choice". Behavioral Ecology 17 (2):
[15] Taborsky, B; GUYER, Taborsky (2009). "Size- 255–259. doi:10.1093/beheco/arj021.
assortative mating in the absence of mate choice". [26] Waynforth, D (2007). "Mate Choice Copying in
Animal Behaviour 77 (2): 439–448. Humans". Human Nature 18 (3). doi:10.1007/
[16] Taborsky, B; GUYER, Taborsky (2009). "Size- s12110-007-9004-2.
assortative mating in the absence of mate choice". [27] Grammer, K; Thornhill (1994)). "Human (Homo
Animal Behaviour 77 (2): 439–448. sapiens) facial attractiveness and sexual selection:
[17] Howard, R.D.; Martens, Innis, Drnevich, Hale the role of symmetry and averageness". Journal of
(1998)). "Mate choice and mate competition Comparative Psychology 108 (3): 233–242.
influence male body size in Japanese medaka". PMID 7924253.
Animal Behaviour 55 (5): 1151–1163. [28] Pawłwski, B; Dunbar (1999). "Impact of market
http://bilbo.bio.purdue.edu/~www_eco/faculty/ value on human mate choice decisions". Proceedings
howard/pdfs/medakaMS.pdf.. of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological
[18] Wong, B; Jennions (2004). "Sequential male mate Sciences 266 (1416): 281–285. doi:10.1098/
choice in a fish, the Pacific blue-eye rspb.1999.0634.
Pseudomugil signifer
and Sociobiology 56 (3): 253–256. doi:10.1007/
s00265-004-0775-8.
External links
[19] Gerhardt, H. C (1991)). "Female mate choice in • http://science.jrank.org/pages/48592/An-
treefrogs: static and dynamic criteria.". Animal Overview.html
Behaviour..
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mate_Choice&oldid=457581572"
Categories:
• Evolutionary biology
This page was last modified on 27 October 2011 at 00:58. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of
the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Contact us
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Mobile view
4