The complexity in the choice of mating of animals

When the tiger cat chose you to mate, the size - especially the tail size - greatly influenced its choice. However, this is not the only impact factor.

Research by Purdue University scientists shows that the decision to choose your mate for animals is more complex than is often thought. The results of Andrew DeWoody's study published in Molecular Ecology have rejected the hypothesis that animals use only Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) as the sole basis to choose your mate. Immunologists have long known that MHC genes play a key role in an immune response, but recently, ecologists have argued that the MHC gene function also influences your choice. coordination of animals.

DeWoody, a professor of genetics, said 'Our data indicate that the choice of mating depends not only on the MHC gene alone, the length of the tail, body size or any single factor. . On the contrary, this is a complicated process involving a lot of factors. '

DeWoody and David Bos, a former assistant professor and currently teaching at Purdue, began to understand how the MHC gene affects the mate selection of wild animals. Most previous studies have shown that mating occurs between males and females with different MHC genes to reproduce a generation with a better immune system.

Previous mouse studies suggest that MHC gene abundance is the only basis for choosing your mate. However, DeWoody said that these studies used the same mice for all genes except the MHC gene.

Scientist Andrew DeWoody at Purdue University found that the group of genes that were previously considered important in mate selection did not play such a big role.(Photo: Purdue Agricultural Communication / Tom Campbell)

'If all other factors and conditions are the same, it is obvious that the MHC gene is the only factor affecting the decision to choose you to mate. However, wild animals have many different characteristics not only MHC, ' DeWoody said. DeWoody and Bos chose to study on the tiger because of their unique mating behavior, only the female was decided to choose you to mate. Females choose which male has the best fertility for eggs. It is carefully selected to create the healthiest generation.

Experiments on tigers, DeWoody and Bos for each female selected one of the two males. After that, they checked the baby's genotype. The results showed that a female salamander selects males with the same MHC genotype; and the other one chooses the male randomly.

Not only the MHC gene but also the tail length play an important role in reproduction. Long-tailed male bulls have a chance to be mate twice more than short-tailed male bulls.

Bos said, perhaps for children some other factors are more important than the MHC gene.

Bos also added: 'Choosing males with different MHC genes, large body sizes and other characteristics can be great. But choosing a male with all those characteristics seems impossible. '

DeWoody's research is funded by the National Science Foundation. Both DeWoody and Bos expect to conduct experiments on other MHC genes or in more complex environments. Bos said knowing the animal's determinants of mate selection could lead to a deeper understanding of the mating habits of all animal populations, including humans.

Document:
David H. Bos, Rod N. Williams, David Gopurenko, Zafer Bulut, J. Andrew DeWoody.Condition-dependent mate and a reproductive disadvantage for MHC-divergent male tiger salamanders.Molecular Ecology, 2009;DOI: 10.1111 / j.1365-294X.2009.04242.x