| 1. |
- Løvlie, Hanne, et al.
(author)
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The influence of mitonuclear genetic variation on personality in seed beetles
- 2014
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In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : Royal Society. - 0962-8452 .- 1471-2954. ; 281:1796
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- There is a growing awareness of the influence of mitochondrial genetic variation on life-history phenotypes, particularly via epistatic interactions with nuclear genes. Owing to their direct effect on traits such as metabolic and growth rates, mitonuclear interactions may also affect variation in behavioural types or personalities (i.e. behavioural variation that is consistent within individuals, but differs among individuals). However, this possibility is largely unexplored. We used mitonuclear introgression lines, where three mitochondrial genomes were introgressed into three nuclear genetic backgrounds, to disentangle genetic effects on behavioural variation in a seed beetle. We found within-individual consistency in a suite of activity-related behaviours, providing evidence for variation in personality. Composite measures of overall activity of individuals in behavioural assays were influenced by both nuclear genetic variation and by the interaction between nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. More importantly, the degree of expression of behavioural and life-history phenotypes was correlated and mitonuclear genetic variation affected expression of these concerted phenotypes. These results show that mitonuclear genetic variation affects both behavioural and life-history traits, and they provide novel insights into the maintenance of genetic variation in behaviour and personality.
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| 2. |
- Kazancıoğlu, Erem, et al.
(author)
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Classic predictions about sex change do not hold under all types of size advantage
- 2010
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In: Journal of Evolutionary Biology. - : Wiley. - 1010-061X .- 1420-9101. ; 23:11, s. 2432-2441
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Theory predicts that the 'size advantage' (rate of increase in male and female fitness with age or size) determines the direction and the timing of sex change in sequential hermaphrodites. Whereas the size advantage is generated by the mating system and would be expected to vary within and between species, the shape or form of the size advantage has rarely been estimated directly. Here, we ask whether theoretical predictions about the timing of sex change hold under different types of size advantage. We model two biological scenarios representing different processes generating the size advantage and find that different types of size advantage can produce patterns that qualitatively differ from classic predictions. Our results demonstrate that a good understanding of sequentially hermaphroditic mating systems, and specifically, a direct assessment of the processes underlying the size advantage is crucial to reliably predict and explain within-species patterns of the timing of sex change.
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| 3. |
- Kazancioglu, Erem, et al.
(author)
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The evolution of optimal female mating rate changes the coevolutionary dynamics of female resistance and male persistence
- 2012
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In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 0962-8436 .- 1471-2970. ; 367:1600, s. 2339-2347
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mating decisions usually involve conflict of interests between sexes. Accordingly, males benefit from increased number of matings, whereas costs of mating favour a lower mating rate for females. The resulting sexual conflict underlies the coevolution of male traits that affect male mating success ('persistence') and female traits that affect female mating patterns ('resistance'). Theoretical studies on the coevolutionary dynamics of male persistence and female resistance assumed that costs of mating and, consequently, the optimal female mating rate are evolutionarily constant. Costs of mating, however, are often caused by male 'persistence' traits that determine mating success. Here, we present a model where the magnitude of costs of mating depend on, and evolve with, male persistence. We find that allowing costs of mating to depend on male persistence results in qualitatively different coevolutionary dynamics. Specifically, we find that male traits such as penis spikes that harm females are not predicted to exhibit runaway selection with female resistance, in contrast to previous theory that predicts indefinite escalation. We argue that it is essential to determine when and to what extent costs of mating are caused by male persistence in order to understand and accurately predict coevolutionary dynamics of traits involved in mating decisions.
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| 4. |
- Kazancıoğlu, Erem, et al.
(author)
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The evolution of social interactions changes predictions about interacting phenotypes
- 2012
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In: Evolution. - : Wiley. - 0014-3820 .- 1558-5646. ; 66:7, s. 2056-2064
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In many traits involved in social interactions, such as courtship and aggression, the phenotype is an outcome of interactions between individuals. Such traits whose expression in an individual is partly determined by the phenotype of its social partner are called interacting phenotypes. Quantitative genetic models suggested that interacting phenotypes can evolve much faster than nonsocial traits. Current models, however, consider the interaction between phenotypes of social partners as a fixed phenotypic response rule, represented by an interaction coefficient (?). Here, we extend existing theoretical models and incorporate the interaction coefficient as a trait that can evolve. We find that the evolution of the interaction coefficient can change qualitatively the predictions about the rate and direction of evolution of interacting phenotypes. We argue that it is crucial to determine whether and how the phenotypic response of an individual to its social partner can evolve to make accurate predictions about the evolution of traits involved in social interactions.
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| 5. |
- Kazancioglu, Erem, et al.
(author)
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The maintenance of mitochondrial genetic variation by negative frequency-dependent selection
- 2014
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In: Ecology Letters. - : Wiley. - 1461-023X .- 1461-0248. ; 17:1, s. 22-27
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mitochondrial genes generally show high levels of standing genetic variation, which is puzzling given the accumulating evidence for phenotypic effects of mitochondrial genetic variation. Negative frequency-dependent selection, where the relative fitness of a genotype is inversely related to its frequency in a population, provides a potent and potentially general process that can maintain mitochondrial polymorphism. We assessed the change in mitochondrial haplotype frequencies over 10 generations of experimental evolution in 180 seed beetle populations in the laboratory, where haplotypes competed for propagation to subsequent generations. We found that haplotypes consistently increased in frequency when they were initially rare and decreased in frequency when initially common. Our results have important implications for the use of mtDNA haplotype frequency data to infer population level processes and they revive the general hypothesis that negative frequency-dependent selection, presumably caused by habitat heterogeneity, may commonly promote polymorphism in ecologically relevant life history genes.
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