Susi's final seminar

Evolution & Ecology Research Centre Seminar Series

LOCATION: Biomed lecture theatre F

TIME: 4-5pm Thursday

DATE: 29th May 2008

DRINKS: There will be celebrations after the seminars (in the biomed foyer).

This week we have 2 PhD exit seminars. Please come along and help Susi and Jason celebrate the completion of their PhDs

Dr Susanne Zajitschek

The interplay between sexual selection, inbreeding and inbreeding avoidance in the guppy

ABSTRACT: Inbreeding can have profound negative effects on individuals by reducing fertility and viability. In populations, inbreeding depression can reduce growth rates and increases extinction risk. The aims of my thesis were to investigate inbreeding depression in male guppies (Poecilia reticulata) and to study the evolution of mechanisms for inbreeding avoidance in females, using guppies from a feral population in Queensland. Male guppies are highly polymorphic in their sexual ornamentation, indeed they show one of the most extreme polymorphisms observed in nature. Female guppies exhibit complex mate choice based on preferences for ornamentation, as well as social context. I examine how these factors of inbreeding avoidance alter sexual selection.

In male guppies I found strong inbreeding depression in male sperm numbers and inbreeding resulted in low fertility under sperm competition. On population level, inbreeding depression was manifest in reduced growth rates, predominantly in the early stages of inbreeding. Inbreeding avoidance mechanisms seem to have evolved in females: they prefer courtship displays of non-inbred males, unfamiliar males, and males with rare patterns. This preference might increase the mating success of immigrants, and may have evolved to facilitate the avoidance of inbreeding. Together with context-independent preferences for ornament combinations it also offers an explanation for the maintenance of polymorphism in this species.

http://www.bees.unsw.edu.au/school/researchstudents/zajitscheksusi.html

Adam Chippindale visits

Adam Chippindale will be visiting for three days, 30/4 - 2/5/2008. Adam did much of the key empirical work on sexually antagonistic fitness variation and selection, using Drosophila hemiclones.

Evolution & Ecology Research

Centre Seminar Series

Adam Chippindale

Queen’s University, Canada

http://biology.queensu.ca/faculty/chippindale.html

The Evolutionary Battle of the Sexes: Arms Race or Tug-of-War?

ABSTRACT: Females and males are often selected to pursue different strategies to maximize reproductive success, which results in two kinds of evolutionary conflict between the sexes. First, there may be direct conflict over the timing and frequency of reproduction, and over control of fertilization. This kind of conflict has recently been shown to be widespread and associated with rapid coevolution between the sexes, potentially via an 'arms race' dynamic. A second kind of conflict is over expression of genes shared by the two sexes but under different selection pressures in each one. This 'intralocus' sexual conflict means that a gene favoured for function in a son may have a deleterious effect on the fitness of a daughter, and vice versa. Intralocus conflict has more of a tug-of-war dynamic, and may be intrinsic to the evolution of separate dimorphic sexes. Evidence for both forms of conflict in a Drosophila model system will be discussed, but it will be argued that intralocus sexual conflict is a particularly potent evolutionary force degrading the fitness of sexual populations, helping to explain the persistence of genetic variation for fitness and the existence of intersex phenotypes. The significance of this kind of sexual conflict is just beginning to be appreciated, with several recent corroborative results from other organisms.

LOCATION: Biomed lecture theatre F

TIME: 4-5pm Thursday

DATE: 1^st May 2008

DRINKS: There will be drinks and nibbles after Adam’s seminar (in the biomed foyer).

Dr. Zajitschek

Felix is now officially Dr. Felix Zajitschek.

His new homepage can be found here:
http://www.bees.unsw.edu.au/school/researchstaff/zajitschek/zajitschekfelix.html

New and 'old' students in the lab

Lyndon 'Alex' Jordan started his PhD in the lab working on guppies and the cost of sexual signalling, and Misha Donohue finished her Honours. Welcome and congrats!

E&ERC

The official homepage of the new centre:
http://www.eerc.unsw.edu.au/

New centre & Uppsala ahoi

Groundbreaking news since the last entry:
we're now part of the 'Evolution & Ecology Research Centre' within BEES and the first new appointment was that of Russell Bonduriansky as a lecturer in the new centre.
Visit his new webspace at: http://www.bonduriansky.net/

Some of us are going to ESEB in Uppsala next week and it will be good to catch up with everybody there.

Visitor from Uppsala

Johanna Rönn is visiting the lab. Johanna is a member of Alexeis former lab group at Uppsala and she'll be doing some work on crickets while she is here.

Conference of the Australasian Evolution Society at UNSW

 The next meeting of the Australasian Evolution Society will be held at the University of New South Wales in Sydney from the evening of Tuesday 12th June to the night of Friday 15th June 2007.

Call for registration and papers has started!

Our plenary speakers will be:

· Lindell Bromham (Australian National University)
· Scott V. Edwards (Harvard University)
· Paul B. Rainey (The University of Auckland)
· Michael Ruse (Florida State University)

For more details go to
http://aes.eriophora.com.au/events/2ndannouncement.htm