title: The genetics of mate preferences in hybrids between two young and sympatric Lake Victoria cichlid species.
abstract: The genetic architecture of mate preferences is likely to affect significant evolutionary processes, including speciation and hybridization. Here, we investigate laboratory hybrids between a pair of sympatric Lake Victoria cichlid fish species that appear to have recently evolved from a hybrid population between similar predecessor species. The species demonstrate strong assortative mating in the laboratory, associated with divergent male breeding coloration (red dorsum versus blue). We show in a common garden experiment, using DNA-based paternity testing, that the strong female mate preferences among males of the two species are fully recovered in a large fraction of their F2 hybrid generation. Individual hybrid females often demonstrated consistent preferences in multiple mate choice trials (more than or equal to five) across a year or more. This result suggests that female mate preference is influenced by relatively few major genes or genomic regions. These preferences were not changed by experience of a successful spawning event with a male of the non-preferred species in a no-choice single-male trial. We found no evidence for imprinting in the F2 hybrids, although the F1 hybrid females may have been imprinted on their mothers. We discuss this nearly Mendelian inheritance of consistent innate mate preferences in the context of speciation theory.
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK ola.svensson@bioenv.gu.se.
authors.forename: Ola
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3752-3131
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Svensson
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK.
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Woodhouse
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK.
authors.forename: Cock
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: van Oosterhout
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK.
authors.forename: George F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.affiliation: Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, EAWAG Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Center for Ecology, Evolution and Biogeochemistry, Seestrasse 79, 6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.|Aquatic Ecology and Evolution, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ole
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Seehausen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D023681:Cichlids / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D060106:Lakes; D008297:Male; D052586:Mating Preference, Animal; D061350:Sympatry
keywords: Pundamilia nyererei; Pundamilia pundamilia; assortative mating; hybridization; sensory drive; speciation-with-gene-flow