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Natural Selection and Mating Preferences

Natural Selection and Mating Preferences

The principle of natural selection posits that organisms better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. This principle is closely intertwined with mating preferences, a key aspect of sexual selection, which evolutionary psychologists believe is driven by instincts to propagate one's genes. Such instincts significantly influence mating behaviors and preferences between genders.
Females, due to their biological roles in conception, pregnancy, and nursing,...

Mate Choice

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Mate choice—the decision about whom to mate with—is a type of natural selection, since animals must reproduce to pass down their genes. Mate choice is also called intersexual selection because the behavior occurs between the sexes.

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Frequency-dependent Selection

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When the fitness of a trait is influenced by how common it is (i.e., its frequency) relative to different traits within a population, this is referred to as frequency-dependent selection. Frequency-dependent selection may occur between species or within a single species. This type of selection can either be positive—with more common phenotypes having higher fitness—or negative, with rarer phenotypes conferring increased fitness.

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In a study where individuals posing as strangers offered compliments and proposed casual sex to students, the responses differed significantly based on gender. Not a single woman accepted the proposal, while 70% of the men agreed. This outcome provides a useful scenario to explore through the lens of evolutionary psychology and social learning theory, highlighting the diverse perspectives on human sexual behaviors.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 5, 2025

Observation and Quantification of Mating Behavior in the Pinewood Nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus

Observation and Quantification of Mating Behavior in the Pinewood Nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus

Published on: December 25, 2016

Revealing mechanisms of mating plug function under sexual selection.

Paula Stockley¹, Catarina Franco², Amy J Claydon²

¹Mammalian Behaviour and Evolution Group, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, CH64 7TE Neston, United Kingdom; p.stockley@liv.ac.uk.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|October 20, 2020

Summary

Mating plugs in rodents limit rival sperm during competitive mating, promoting fertilization success. Stable isotope labeling revealed how these plugs influence sperm competition and reproductive outcomes.

Keywords:

ejaculates proteomics reproduction sexual selection stable isotope labeling

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Area of Science:

Animal Behavior
Evolutionary Biology
Reproductive Biology

Background:

Mating plugs are common in sexually reproducing animals.
They are hypothesized to increase male fertilization success in competitive mating scenarios.
Previous research was limited by the inability to distinguish ejaculates from competing males.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of mating plugs in male fertilization success under promiscuous mating conditions in the rodent Myodes glareolus.
To overcome previous limitations in discriminating ejaculates during direct male-male competition.

Main Methods:

Utilized stable isotope labeling in vivo to differentiate ejaculates from multiple males.
Employed proteomics to analyze mating plug composition and identify key proteins.
Observed mating plug retention and its effect on rival sperm presence.

Main Results:

Mating plugs, even when retained, significantly reduced the number of rival sperm entering the female reproductive tract.
Variation in mating plug size and accessory gland protein content correlated with the number of a male's sperm progressing.
The relative number of sperm successfully progressing predicted fertilization success between rival males.

Conclusions:

Stable isotope labeling provides a novel method to study cryptic postcopulatory sexual selection.
Rodent mating plugs play a crucial role in modulating sperm competition and enhancing male fertilization success.
This approach can be applied to diverse taxa to uncover hidden mechanisms of sexual selection.