I am a Ms student of Systematics, Ecology, and Evolution, and I am trying to write my research proposal on the topic of "Sexual Selection". I am especially interested in insects.
I can not find a good model organism that has the following characters:
1) it is easy to breed and the life cycle is not very long
2) it is big enough to be observed (or even filmed) with naked eyes.
3) there are some information on their genetics
I have just started my masters program and I haven't been able to choose a good model organism. Would be really glad if you throw in some ideas.
Thank you
It is a pity that the word '"genetics" nowadays is being used in the sense almost exactly opposite to its true meaning: for molecular level phenetics (sequence of nucleotides in DNA). This is seen also in Ehsan's point 3). In fact, if I understand Hossein's question well, he seems to be interested rather in true genetics, i.e. in ways and patterns of inheritance of e.g. sexually dimorphic characters.
Hossein:
Butterfies and moths are good models for sexual selection. They are easy to breed, the life cycle is short and there is genetic information for some genera and species. You must choose a sexually selected trait that influences intraspecific competition for mates. For instance female sex pheromones. This includes competition for the number or quality of mates and for resources that directly influence the probability of mating. In the following paper "The evolution of female sex pheromones" there is information about this subject.
Best wishes,
Luis Miguel
Dear Luis,
Thank you for your advice and also for the papers. Studying sex pheromones as well as the behavior is very interesting. I will give it a thought
I think, first of all you should clarify your question. Do you want to prove Sexual Selection in particular species/taxa? Do you want to reveal gene expression and molecular mechanisms? or etc...
1) it is easy to breed and the life cycle is not very long
General insects model such as Tribolium sp and Drosophila sp has the great database and easy to breed. On the other hand, overworking on mentioned species means "most of the questions from them has been already answered".
2) it is big enough to be observed (or even filmed) with naked eyes
it seems that you are looking for morphological characters or active responses. In this case, most of the insects has sexual size dimorphism which alternates via sexual activity/conflict etc...
3) there are some information on their genetics
If you mean molecular sequences data which relate to the particular behavior, then I should tell you such nuclear sequences are just available for common models. But other data such as mitochondrial genomes are available for almost all species.
Many beetles should be useful, especially those with good visible dimorphism and with males which fighting for females. Unfortunately many of them have long life cycle (few years).
It is a pity that the word '"genetics" nowadays is being used in the sense almost exactly opposite to its true meaning: for molecular level phenetics (sequence of nucleotides in DNA). This is seen also in Ehsan's point 3). In fact, if I understand Hossein's question well, he seems to be interested rather in true genetics, i.e. in ways and patterns of inheritance of e.g. sexually dimorphic characters.
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