ORCID Profile
0000-0001-9261-4031
Current Organisations
Queensland Health
,
Kyung Hee University
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Population, Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics | Evolutionary Biology | Biological Adaptation
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 22-06-2021
Abstract: A common pattern of reproductive aging is that reproductive performance increases during early life and reaches a peak, followed by a decline with age. Such quadratic reproductive aging patterns can differ among in iduals. Moreover, if in idual differences in reproductive aging patterns reflect in idual-specific life-history trade-off strategies, they are also predicted to be associated with behavior according to the pace-of-life syndrome. For ex le, more active, aggressive, or bolder in iduals may invest more in early reproduction, resulting in more rapid reproductive aging. In this study, we estimated in idual differences in quadratic reproductive aging patterns and the relationship between reproductive aging and the activity of the virgin female bean bug (Riptortus pedestris) in the absence of mating costs. We found that the egg production of virgin females followed a parabolic trajectory with age and that in iduals varied significantly in their quadratic reproductive aging patterns. In addition, we found that females that were relatively more active during early life invested in egg production more heavily at a young age and suffered from a sharper decline in egg production later in life. Thus, our results indicate that in idual reproductive aging patterns may be a key component in the study of pace-of-life syndromes. We suggest that within-in idual plastic characteristics of life-history traits such as reproductive aging patterns may explain the mixed results from multiple studies on pace-of-life syndromes.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-09-2018
DOI: 10.1111/EVO.13600
Abstract: The expression of aggression depends not only on the direct genetic effects (DGEs) of an in idual's genes on its own behavior, but also on indirect genetic effects (IGEs) caused by heritable phenotypes expressed by social partners. IGEs can affect the amount of heritable variance on which selection can act. Despite the important roles of IGEs in the evolutionary process, it remains largely unknown whether the strength of IGEs varies across life stages or competitive regimes. Based on manipulations of nymphal densities and > 3000 pair-wise aggression tests across multiple life stages, we experimentally demonstrate that IGEs on aggression are stronger in field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus) that develop at lower densities than in those that develop at higher densities, and that these effects persist with age. The existence of density-dependent IGEs implies that social interactions strongly determine the plastic expression of aggression when competition for resources is relaxed. A more competitive (higher density) rearing environment may fail to provide crickets with sufficient resources to develop social cognition required for strong IGEs. The contribution of IGEs to evolutionary responses was greater at lower densities. Our study thereby demonstrates the importance of considering IGEs in density-dependent ecological and evolutionary processes.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-07-2018
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.4373
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 06-2020
DOI: 10.1086/708497
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-08-2010
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS1051
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-07-2019
DOI: 10.1111/EVO.13802
Abstract: Ecological conditions such as nutrition can change genetic covariances between traits and accelerate or slow down trait evolution. As adaptive trait correlations can become maladaptive following rapid environmental change, poor or stressful environments are expected to weaken genetic covariances, thereby increasing the opportunity for independent evolution of traits. Here, we demonstrate the differences in genetic covariance among multiple behavioral and morphological traits (exploration, aggression, and body weight) between southern field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus) raised in favorable (free-choice) versus stressful (protein-deprived) nutritional environments. We also quantify the extent to which differences in genetic covariance structures contribute to the potential for the independent evolution of these traits. We demonstrate that protein-deprived environments tend to increase the potential for traits to evolve independently, which is caused by genetic covariances that are significantly weaker for crickets raised on protein-deprived versus free-choice diets. The weakening effects of stressful environments on genetic covariances tended to be stronger in males than in females. The weakening of the genetic covariance between traits under stressful nutritional environments was expected to facilitate the opportunity for adaptive evolution across generations. Therefore, the multivariate gene-by-environment interactions revealed here may facilitate behavioral and morphological adaptations to rapid environmental change.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-12-2010
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-06-2016
DOI: 10.1038/SREP29071
Abstract: Selection may favour in iduals of the same population to differ consistently in nutritional preference, for ex le, because optimal diets covary with morphology or personality. We provided Southern field crickets ( Gryllus bimaculatus) with two synthetic food sources (carbohydrates and proteins) and quantified repeatedly how much of each macronutrient was consumed by each in idual. We then quantified (i) whether in iduals were repeatable in carbohydrate and protein intake rate, (ii) whether an in idual’s average daily intake of carbohydrates was correlated with its average daily intake of protein, and (iii) whether short-term changes in intake of carbohydrates coincided with changes in intake of protein within in iduals. Intake rates were in idually repeatable for both macronutrients. However, in iduals differed in their relative daily intake of carbohydrates versus proteins (i.e., ‘nutritional preference’). By contrast, total consumption varied plastically as a function of body weight within in iduals. Body weight—but not personality (i.e., aggression, exploration behaviour)—positively predicted nutritional preference at the in idual level as large crickets repeatedly consumed a higher carbohydrate to protein ratio compared to small ones. Our finding of level-specific associations between the consumption of distinct nutritional components demonstrates the merit of applying multivariate and multi-level viewpoints to the study of nutritional preference.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 20-05-2019
Abstract: Multiple behaviors can correlate with each other at the in idual level (behavioral syndrome), and behavioral syndromes can vary in their direction between populations within a species. Within-species variation in behavioral syndromes is predicted to be associated with alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs), which evolve under different selection regimes. Here, we tested this using a water strider species, Gerris gracilicornis, in which males employ 2 ARTs that are fixed for life: signaling males (producing courtship ripples) versus nonsignaling males (producing no courtship ripples). We measured multiple behaviors in males with both of these ARTs and compared behavioral syndromes between them. Our results showed that signaling males were more active and attempted to mate more frequently than nonsignaling males. This shaped an overall behavioral syndrome between activities in mating and nonmating contexts when we pooled both ARTs. In addition, the behavioral syndromes between cautiousness and mating activity differed significantly between ARTs. In signaling males, the syndrome was significantly negative: signaling males more eager to mate tended to leave their refuges more rapidly. However, mating activity and cautiousness were not correlated in nonsignaling males. This might be because active males, in the context of predation risk and mating, were favored during the evolution and maintenance of the unique intimidating courtship tactic of G. gracilicornis males. Thus, our findings suggest that ARTs facilitate behavioral ergence and also contribute to the evolution of tactic-specific behavioral syndromes. We also show that research on ARTs and behavioral syndromes can be harmonized to study behavioral variation.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 04-10-2017
Abstract: Empirical studies imply that sex-specific genetic architectures can resolve evolutionary conflicts between males and females, and thereby facilitate the evolution of sexual dimorphism. Sex-specificity of behavioural genetic architectures has, however, rarely been considered. Moreover, as the expression of genetic (co)variances is often environment-dependent, general inferences on sex-specific genetic architectures require estimates of quantitative genetics parameters under multiple conditions. We measured exploration and aggression in pedigreed populations of southern field crickets ( Gryllus bimaculatus ) raised on either naturally balanced (free-choice) or imbalanced (protein-deprived) diets. For each dietary condition, we measured for each behavioural trait (i) level of sexual dimorphism, (ii) level of sex-specificity of survival selection gradients, (iii) level of sex-specificity of additive genetic variance, and (iv) strength of the cross-sex genetic correlation. We report here evidence for sexual dimorphism in behaviour as well as sex-specificity in the expression of genetic (co)variances as predicted by theory. The additive genetic variances of exploration and aggression were significantly greater in males compared with females. Cross-sex genetic correlations were highly positive for exploration but deviating (significantly) from one for aggression findings were consistent across dietary treatments. This suggests that genetic architectures characterize the sexually dimorphic focal behaviours across various key environmental conditions in the wild. Our finding also highlights that sexual conflict can be resolved by evolving sexually independent genetic architectures.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 02-04-2019
Abstract: In idual repeatability characterizes many behaviors. Repeatable behavior may result from repeated social interactions among familiar group members, owing to adaptive social niche specialization. In the context of aggression, in species like field crickets, social niche specialization should also occur when in iduals repeatedly interact with unfamiliar in iduals. This would require the outcome of social interactions to have carry-over effects on fighting ability and aggressiveness in subsequent interactions, leading to long-term among-in idual differentiation. To test this hypothesis, we randomly assigned freshly emerged adult males of the southern field cricket Gryllus bimaculatus to either a solitary or social treatment. In social treatment, males interacted with a same-sex partner but experienced a new partner every 3 days. After 3 weeks of treatment, we repeatedly subjected treated males to dyadic interactions to measure aggression. During this time, we also continuously measured the 3-daily rate of carbohydrate and protein consumption. In idual differentiation was considerably higher among males reared in the social versus solitary environment for aggressiveness but not for nutrient intake. Simultaneously, social experience led to lower within-in idual stability (i.e., increased within-in idual variance) in carbohydrate intake. Past social experiences, thus, shaped both behavioral in iduality and stability. While previous research has emphasized behavioral in iduality resulting from repeated interactions among familiar in iduals, our study implies that behavioral in iduality, in the context of aggression, may generally result from social interactions, whether with familiar or unfamiliar in iduals. Our findings thus imply that social interactions may have a stronger effect on in idual differentiation than previously appreciated.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2015
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 10-06-2009
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-11-2010
Abstract: A major challenge in evolutionary biology is to understand the typically complex interactions between erse counter-balancing factors of Darwinian selection for size assortative mating and sexual size dimorphism. It appears that rarely a simple mechanism could provide a major explanation of these phenomena. Mechanics of behaviors can predict animal morphology, such like adaptations to locomotion in animals from various of taxa, but its potential to predict size-assortative mating and its evolutionary consequences has been less explored. Mate-grasping by males, using specialized adaptive morphologies of their forelegs, midlegs or even antennae wrapped around female body at specific locations, is a general mating strategy of many animals, but the contribution of the mechanics of this wide-spread behavior to the evolution of mating behavior and sexual size dimorphism has been largely ignored. Here, we explore the consequences of a simple, and previously ignored, fact that in a grasping posture the position of the male's grasping appendages relative to the female's body is often a function of body size difference between the sexes. Using an approach taken from robot mechanics we model coercive grasping of females by water strider Gerris gracilicornis males during mating initiation struggles. We determine that the male optimal size (relative to the female size), which gives the males the highest grasping force, properly predicts the experimentally measured highest mating success. Through field s ling and simulation modeling of a natural population we determine that the simple mechanical model, which ignores most of the other hypothetical counter-balancing selection pressures on body size, is sufficient to account for size-assortative mating pattern as well as species-specific sexual dimorphism in body size of G. gracilicornis . The results indicate how a simple and previously overlooked physical mechanism common in many taxa is sufficient to account for, or importantly contribute to, size-assortative mating and its consequences for the evolution of sexual size dimorphism.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2016
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-06-2021
DOI: 10.1111/JEB.13888
Abstract: Life‐history theory predicts a negative correlation between reproduction and survival because in iduals differ in their investment in early reproduction at the expense of survival. However, life‐history trade‐offs can be masked when in idual differences in resource allocation are smaller than those in resource acquisition. In polymorphic species, as distinct morphs exhibit differences in intrinsic physiology, the relative effects of resource acquisition and allocation on life‐history traits will differ between morphs, contributing to morph‐specific life‐history correlations. Here, in the wing‐dimorphic water strider Aquarius paludum , we found that wing morphs differed in within‐morph in idual‐level life‐history correlations. Longer‐lived flight‐capable long‐winged females produced fewer eggs per day and matured later, whereas life‐history trade‐offs were not observed in short‐winged flightless females. The survival–reproduction trade‐off observed in long‐winged females may be a result of in idual differences in the timing of wing muscle histolysis. In iduals that underwent wing histolysis early would have increased reproduction at the expense of a shorter life, whereas in iduals with late wing histolysis would have reduced reproduction but a longer life. Short‐winged females, who never develop wings, effectively have more resources to allocate to both survival and reproduction, masking any life‐history trade‐offs. Thus, we suggest that morph‐specific effects of resource allocation trade‐offs can shape the morph‐specific extent of in idual variation in life‐history strategies, which may contribute to the evolution and maintenance of within‐species polymorphism.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2013
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-08-2020
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.6644
Abstract: In wing‐polymorphic insects, wing morphs differ not only in dispersal capability but also in life history traits because of trade‐offs between flight capability and reproduction. When the fitness benefits and costs of producing wings differ between males and females, sex‐specific trade‐offs can result in sex differences in the frequency of long‐winged in iduals. Furthermore, the social environment during development affects sex differences in wing development, but few empirical tests of this phenomenon have been performed to date. Here, I used the wing‐dimorphic water strider Tenagogerris euphrosyne to test how rearing density and sex ratio affect the sex‐specific development of long‐winged dispersing morphs (i.e., sex‐specific macroptery). I also used a full‐sib, split‐family breeding design to assess genetic effects on density‐dependent, sex‐specific macroptery. I reared water strider nymphs at either high or low densities and measured their wing development. I found that long‐winged morphs developed more frequently in males than in females when in iduals were reared in a high‐density environment. However, the frequency of long‐winged morphs was not biased according to sex when in iduals were reared in a low‐density environment. In addition, full‐sib males and females showed similar macroptery incidence rates at low nymphal density, whereas the macroptery incidence rates differed between full‐sib males and females at high nymphal density. Thus complex gene‐by‐environment‐by‐sex interactions may explain the density‐specific levels of sex bias in macroptery, although this interpretation should be treated with some caution. Overall, my study provides empirical evidence for density‐specific, sex‐biased wing development. My findings suggest that social factors as well as abiotic factors can be important in determining sex‐biased wing development in insects.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2016
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-06-2014
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 22-08-2018
Abstract: Reproductive traits involved in mate acquisition (pre-mating traits) are predicted to covary with those involved in fertilization success (post-mating traits). Variation in male quality may give rise to positive, and resource allocation trade-offs to negative, covariances between pre- and post-mating traits. Empirical studies have yielded mixed results. Progress is h ered as researchers often fail to appreciate that mentioned biological mechanisms can act simultaneously but at different hierarchical levels of biological variation: genetic correlations may, for ex le, be negative due to genetic trade-offs but environmental correlations may instead be positive due to in idual variation in resource acquisition. We measured pre-mating (aggression, body weight) and post-mating (ejaculate size) reproductive traits in a pedigreed population of southern field crickets ( Gryllus bimaculatus ). To create environmental variation, crickets were raised on either a low or a high nymphal density treatment. We estimated genetic and environmental sources of correlations between pre- and post-mating traits. We found positive genetic correlations between pre- and post-mating traits, implying the existence of genetic variation in male quality. Over repeated trials of the same in idual (testing order), positive changes in one trait were matched with negative changes in other traits, suggesting energy allocating trade-offs within in iduals among days. These findings demonstrate the need for research on pre- and post-mating traits to consider the hierarchical structure of trait correlations. Only by doing so was our study able to conclude that multiple mechanisms jointly shape phenotypic associations between pre- and post-mating traits in crickets.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-07-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-01-2017
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2015
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-07-2012
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2015
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-03-2017
DOI: 10.1111/JEB.13052
Abstract: Recent theory predicts that the magnitude of sexual antagonism should depend on how well populations are adapted to their environment. We tested this idea experimentally by comparing intersexual genetic correlations for adult survival in pedigreed populations of southern field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus) raised on naturally balanced (free-choice) vs. imbalanced (protein-deprived) diets. We tested for (1) sex differences in nutritional intake and preference, (2) sex-specific effects of protein deprivation on survival and (3) diet dependence of the level of sexual antagonism. Adult males and females consumed a similar amount of protein, but protein deprivation decreased male survival but not female survival. Protein deprivation appeared to decrease the degree of sexual antagonism as intersexual genetic correlations were significantly lower than 1 only for the complementary free-choice diet group but close to 1 for the protein-deficient diet group. Our findings thereby implied that variation in nutritional environments can alter the magnitude of sexual antagonism. This research represents an important step towards understanding the relationship between sexual antagonism and adaptation in heterogeneous environments.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 03-2014
DOI: 10.1086/674935
Abstract: Behavioral traits often change over an in idual's lifetime. Experience, physiological senescence, and age-dependent differences in optimal behavior can, in theory, all cause longitudinal behavioral changes. Yet most studies of behavioral plasticity and selection on behavior focus on short-term population-level responses to social factors such as conspecific density or sex ratio. Longer-term effects of social interactions on in idual behavior have rarely been tested. Here we tested these effects by exposing male water striders (Hemiptera: Gerridae) to two different social conditions throughout their lifetime we call these the nonsocial and social treatments. We then measured each male's lifetime mating success and in idual behavioral plasticity by observing four different behaviors (exploring a novel environment, dispersal ability, sex-recognition sensitivity, and tendency to remount a resistant female after being dislodged) every 2 weeks. The social environment influenced in idual variation in behavioral plasticity as well as population-level behavioral plasticity. Moreover, when we calculated linear selection gradients of in idual behavioral traits and their plasticities on lifetime mating success, male remounting tendency and in idual plasticity in exploration ability were likely to be the most important factors explaining variation in male lifetime mating success. In conclusion, the variation in social interactions throughout an in idual's lifetime contributes to the in idual variation in behavioral plasticity, which can significantly affect a male's lifetime fitness.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-08-2013
DOI: 10.1111/JEB.12223
Abstract: Correlated suites of behaviours, or behavioural syndromes, appear to be widespread, and yet few studies have explored how they arise and are maintained. One possibility holds that correlational selection can generate and maintain behavioural syndrome if certain behavioural combinations enjoy greater fitness than other combinations. Here we test this correlational selection hypothesis by comparing behavioural syndrome structure with a multivariate fitness surface based on reproductive success of male water striders. We measured the structure of a behavioural syndrome including dispersal ability, exploration behaviour, latency to remount and sex recognition sensitivity in males. We then measured the relationship between these behaviours and mating success in a range of sex ratio environments. Despite the presence of some significant correlational selection, behavioural syndrome structure was not associated with correlational selection on behaviours. Although we cannot conclusively reject the correlational selection hypothesis, our evidence suggests that correlational selection and resulting linkage disequilibrium might not be responsible for maintaining the strong correlations between behaviours. Instead, we suggest alternative ways in which this behavioural syndrome may have arisen and outline the need for physiological and quantitative genetic tests of these suggestions.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 2016
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2014
Start Date: 02-2017
End Date: 05-2017
Amount: $372,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
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