Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on December 1, 2007
Behavioral Ecology 2008 19(1):177-183; doi:10.1093/beheco/arm120
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preference polymorphism for coloration but no speciation in a population of Lake Victoria cichlids
a Department of Animal Ecology, Institute of Biology, Leiden University, PO Box 9516, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands b Department of Aquatic Ecology and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, University of Berne, Baltzerstrasse 6, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland c Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Swiss Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG), Ecology Centre, Seestrasse 79, CH-6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland
Address correspondence to I. van der Sluijs. E-mail: i.van.der.sluijs{at}biology.leidenuniv.nl.
 |
Abstract |
|---|
Female mating preference based on male nuptial coloration has been suggested to be an important source of diversifying selection in the radiation of Lake Victoria cichlid fish. Initial variation in female preference is a prerequisite for diversifying selection; however, it is rarely studied in natural populations. In clear water areas of Lake Victoria, the sibling species Pundamilia pundamilia with blue males and Pundamilia nyererei with red males coexist, intermediate phenotypes are rare, and most females have species-assortative mating preferences. Here, we study a population of Pundamilia that inhabits turbid water where male coloration is variable from reddish to blue with most males intermediate. We investigated male phenotype distribution and female mating preferences. Male phenotype was unimodally distributed with a mode on intermediate color in 1 year and more blue-shifted in 2 other years. In mate choice experiments with females of the turbid water population and males from a clearer water population, we found females with a significant and consistent preference for P. pundamilia (blue) males, females with such preferences for P. nyererei (red) males, and many females without a preference. Hence, female mating preferences in this population could cause disruptive selection on male coloration that is probably constrained by the low signal transduction of the turbid water environment. We suggest that if environmental signal transduction was improved and the preference/color polymorphism was stabilized by negative frequency-dependent selection, divergent sexual selection might separate the 2 morphs into reproductively isolated species resembling the clear water species P. pundamilia and P. nyererei.
Key words: cichlids, hybridization, mate choice, polymorphism, sexual selection.
Received 23 March 2007; revised 20 October 2007; accepted 21 October 2007.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  R. B Stelkens, M. E.R Pierotti, D. A Joyce, A. M Smith, I. van der Sluijs, and O. Seehausen Disruptive sexual selection on male nuptial coloration in an experimental hybrid population of cichlid fish Phil Trans R Soc B, September 12, 2008; 363(1505): 2861 - 2870. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
I. van der Sluijs, T. J.M Van Dooren, K. D Hofker, J. J.M van Alphen, R. B Stelkens, and O. Seehausen Female mating preference functions predict sexual selection against hybrids between sibling species of cichlid fish Phil Trans R Soc B, September 12, 2008; 363(1505): 2871 - 2877. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 S. M Gray, L. M Dill, F. Y Tantu, E. R Loew, F. Herder, and J. S McKinnon Environment-contingent sexual selection in a colour polymorphic fish Proc R Soc B, August 7, 2008; 275(1644): 1785 - 1791. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|