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A Method to Test the Effect of Environmental Cues on Mating Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

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Experience-mediated plasticity in mate preferences: mating assurance in a variable environment.

Kasey D Fowler-Finn¹, Rafael L Rodríguez

¹Behavioral and Molecular Ecology Group, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA. kaseyff@uwm.edu

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution

|January 27, 2012

Summary

Prior experience shapes mate preferences in treehoppers, favoring mating assurance. Females showed greater selectivity with preferred signals but peak preference remained unchanged, supporting adaptive plasticity.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary Biology
Behavioral Ecology
Sexual Selection

Background:

Mate preferences can be influenced by prior experience with sexual signals.
This experience-mediated plasticity has significant implications for sexual selection dynamics.
Two key hypotheses, mating assurance and mismating avoidance, explain the evolution of such plasticity.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the evolution of experience-mediated plasticity in mate preferences.
To test whether prior exposure to sexual signals alters mate choice in Enchenopa treehoppers.
To differentiate between mating assurance and mismating avoidance as drivers of this plasticity.

Main Methods:

Female Enchenopa binotata treehoppers were exposed to varying signal frequencies (preferred, above, below, none).
Mate preference and selectivity were measured based on female responses to different signal treatments.
The study analyzed how signal experience impacts peak preference and overall selectivity.

Main Results:

Females exposed to preferred signals exhibited significantly higher selectivity.
Prior signal experience did not alter the peak preference of the females.
Selectivity varied with experience, supporting the mating assurance hypothesis.

Conclusions:

Experience-driven plasticity in mate preferences favors mating assurance, ensuring reproduction when preferred mates are scarce.
This adaptive plasticity can influence sexual signal evolution and reproductive isolation.
Such plasticity may enhance colonization success in new environments with rare preferred mates.