Mate-choice copying: A fitness-enhancing behavior that evolves by indirect selection.
A spatially explicit, individual-based simulation model is used to study the spread of an allele for mate-choice copying (MCC) through horizontal cultural transmission when female innate preferences do or do not coevolve with a male viability-increasing trait. Evolution of MCC is unlikely when innate female preferences coevolve with the trait, as copier females cannot express a higher preference than noncopier females for high-fitness males. However, if a genetic polymorphism for innate preference persists in the population, MCC can evolve by indirect selection through hitchhiking: the copying allele hitchhikes on the male trait. MCC can be an adaptive behavior-that is, a behavior that increases a population's average fitness relative to populations without MCC-even though the copying allele itself may be neutral or mildly deleterious.
Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia, Grup de Genòmica, Bioinformàtica i Biologia Evolutiva (GGBE), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
Mauro
M
Santos
cE3c-Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal.
Manuel
M
Sapage
cE3c-Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal.
Margarida
M
Matos
cE3c-Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal.
Susana A M
SAM
Varela
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D052586:Mating Preference, Animal; D010641:Phenotype; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal
Indirect selection; individual-based simulations; mate-choice copying; sexual selection; social information