Lecture 16: Sex continued; Sexual Selection

It's business time.

Independent study outcomes

1. Meaning of monogamy, polygamy, polygyny, polyandry, promiscuity, lek

Monogamy: A male and female form a pair bond for a mating season or in some cases, for the
individuals reproductive lives. (And they lived happily ever after... happier than all the others)
Polygamy: male/female has active pair bonds with more than one individual of the opposite sex.
Polygyny: one male has active pair bonds with more than one female (male contribute only
sperm). (IDEAL LIFE OF EVERY GUY EVER LIVED)
Polyandry: one female has active pair bonds with more than one male (female contribute
only eggs). (Sex and the city LOL)
Promiscuity: males and females have no pair bonds beyond the time it takes to mate. (YOLO)
Leks: congregations of displaying males, where females come only to mate.(KING OF THE
FUCKING WORLD)

2. Conditions favoring the evolution of monogamous versus polygamous mating

systems
Monogamous:
The young require a great deal of care that both parents can provide. (needy children)
IT happens in species where males and females achieve higher rates of reproduction when both
parents are actively involved with raising young
The males indirectly feed the young by bringing food to the mother.
Polygamous:
If male have high-quality territories, the females living there may be able to raise young on their
own. (Thats the dream brahhhh)
Polygyny is prevalent because females make a much larger investment in raising the young than
males. (Wait up, I will be right back, I just gotta call mommy.)

3. Handicap explanation for why females prefer males with extravagant

ornaments
Female select males those are successful (with ornate structures). Chicks like successful men.
Those structures actually impede their locomotion. (Their THANG is too big for them to move.)
Female pick them because they survived even though they have such a handicap.
And the alleles that responsible for the ornamental handicap are passed to the offspring.

4. Meaning of sexual dimorphism, intersexual selection, intrasexual selection

Sexual Dimorphism: The differences in size or appearance of males and females. (It is caused by
the sexual selection. (The typical trying-too-hards.)
Sexual selection:
Intersexual selection: selection based on the interactions between male and females
Intrasexual selection: selection based on the interactions between members of same sex.)
 Lecture outcomes

Taxonomic distribution of sexual reproduction

Much more living organisms reproduce asexually
Animals and plants reproduce sexually (which is not a lot comparing to the others.)
LUCA is most likely asexually reproducing.

Disadvantages of sexual reproduction

Cost of mating: finding/attracting/mating to reproduce:
Time consuming
Heart broken, *(ME and my broken heart. Rixton)
Risky, get eaten by attracted predators.
Cost of meiosis *
Pass on only 50% of alleles to your offspring
(while cloning yourself, (asexual) passes on 100%
Cost of males *
Only female involved in growing the offspring, lays eggs
Males are kind of a dead end in terms of lack of ability to reproduce by themselves.

"Muller's Ratchet" explanation for advantage of sexual reproduction

asexual lineages accumulate harmful mutations
(most mutations are harmful) more ways to mess things up than make it better
There is no way in losing harmful mutation (for asexual species)
Accumulate harmful mutations will increase over time

"Ruby in the Rubbish" explanation for advantage of sexual reproduction

(sexual recombination breaks the ratchet)
Continually creates new genotypes with fewer harmful mutations
Although some of the offspring will have more harmful mutations than parents, (RUBBISH)
Some are going to have less harmful mutations than parents (RUBY)
This is providing a little change in the inevitable doom (Asexual) to stir up, and ripple out.

How and why sexual reproduction increases the speed at which favorable
mutations can be combined
In asexual reproduction, three helpful mutations A, B, C are going to happen in three individual
(essentially competing with each other, then A outcompetes BC, and eventually down the road,
they are going to have mutation AB, then eventually ABC) TAKES WAYY TOO LONG
In Sexual reproduction, A, B, C happens in three individuals, but sexually recombination
combines those mutations in individuals. (It happen sooooo much quicker.
Relationship between sexual reproduction and extinction risk
Asexual species are usually short-lived and rare, (extinction fast)
Sexual recombination benefits the population by speeding up evolution
Discarding harmful mutations
Combining beneficial mutations
Decreases the likelihood of extinction

Why mutational (long-term) explanations for sex are not sufficient to explain its
persistence
Selection does not work in the long term kind of thing.
It works more often on individuals than population. (it is shortsighted)
When it selects certain traits, it looks at the individuals, not the Big Picture.
(It is every man for himself indeed)

Role of environmental stability in determining whether sexual or asexual

reproduction is favored
STABLE environment: from the point of a female, it is better to reproduce asexually. (They are
well adapted enough to live to reproductive age, who needs man.)
UNSTABLE environment: they cant predict offspring is going to experience the same
environment conditions she is adapted to, so now it is better to produce sexually. (offspring that
have variance.)

Lottery principle and Red Queen principle as explanations for advantages of sex
Lottery principle: Just like buying lottery, you buy many tickets with different numbers.
Sexual reproduction causes a lot of genetic variation and diversity in offspring
Maximizing likelihood of offsprings success in the future environment.

Red queen principle: Running to keep up

Host coevolve with parasites
Frequency dependent selection: new (rare genotypes have high fitness)
Sex favored in environments with lots of parasites, because it produces new genotypes.

LONG TERM ADVANTAGES: SHORT-TERM ADVANTAGES

Remove harmful mutations Bet-hedging in a changing environment
Combining helpful mutations Out-racing natural enemies

Why sex places different selective forces on males vs. females

Sexually dimorphic traits which may interfere with an organisms survivorship benefits sexual
selection
Incredibly wasteful traits are favored through sexual selection
Females look different than the males.
Male traits are favored because females choose based on a males display
Both intrasexual and intersexual selection can operate at the same time
Relationship between sexual selection and investment in offspring
Females:
Eggs are more expensive to produce and females invest more time and care into offspring
Females become a limited resource for the male who invests less
Females want to ensure that they will increase survivorship and quality of offspring and thus
asses males based on quality
Females dont care as much about sexual betrayal of males in terms of fitness
Females care more emotionally because mates leave and stop providing care
Males:
To maximize fitness (to spread genes) and thou must have sex with multiple females (BANG
BANG BANGITY-BANG, I said a BANG BANG BANGITY-BANG!)
Sperm is small, cheap, and heavily abundant in comparison to female eggs and overall cheaper to
produce.
Males care about sexual betrayal because females are supposed to carry the males offspring and
genes.

How sexual selection maintains traits seemingly incompatible with natural

selection
Sexual dimorphic traits are incompatible with natural selection ( they are usually a liability)
BUT since the chicks dig that, so it makes them have a higher reproductive rate.

Examples of traits favored by intra vs. inter sexual selection

Intrasexual selection: males have horns, large body size, that helps them compete with other males.
Intersexual selection: elaborate songs, fancy long tail, mating dances that females find sexy

Why males are more usually competing for access to females (rather than vice
versa)
Because females get to be choosy, they invest more than the males in reproduction process.

Relationship between parental investment and which sex is choosy vs. competing
The one invests more than the other gets to be choosy. And the opposite sex individuals would compete
with each other?

Average vs potential fitness of male vs female

Males have much higher potential fitness than females.
On average, male and female have the same average fitness in a population.

Limiting factors on male vs. female fitness

Males: amount of female he mates with, the more the merrier.
Females: TBA limited, restricted to reproduce certain number of offspring. (to maximize the
quality, not the quantity.)
Anisogamy (unequal gamete size.) (Sperm is cheap, egg is expensive.)