Integrating the theories of kin selection and sexual selection

  • Gonçalo Faria

Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis (PhD)

Abstract

Sexual selection and kin selection are both considered special cases of natural selection. However, both topics have developed almost entirely independently, with a prominent review even suggesting that there is no overlap between the two theories. To understand the extent to which the theories of kin selection and sexual selection overlap, I identify and develop possible connections between these two bodies of theory, particularly in relation to the three mechanisms capable of generating kin selection effects: 1) population viscosity; 2) kin recognition; and 3) greenbeard effect. Regarding 1) population viscosity, I find that: a) in the presence of sex-biased dispersal, there is potential for intragenomic conflicts between maternal-origin and paternal-origin genes over male harming traits, but not over female resistance traits, which can lead to parent-of-origin-specific gene expression (genomic imprinting) and male-biased maladaptive behavioural disorders; and b) relatedness between social partners driven by population viscosity can determine investment into sleep versus wakefulness depending on the social – including sexual – pressures present in the social group, and this framework can be used to study sex differences, intragenomic conflict between maternal-origin and paternal-origin genes, genomic imprinting, and clinical pathologies in relation to sleeping phenotypes. Regarding 2) kin recognition, I find that relatedness and local competition are opposing entangled factors during the evolution of sexual conflict that can be disentangled through either kin discrimination or budding dispersal. Regarding 3) greenbeard effect, I find that the sexy-son effect may be considered a greenbeard effect, with the lek paradox present in the former being equivalent to the falsebeard problem present in the latter and with the same solution solving both. The results of this thesis show that there is an exciting overlap between the theories of sexual selection and kin selection, and fuel for scientific research on this topic for years to come.
Date of Award3 Dec 2019
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University of St Andrews
SupervisorAndy Gardner (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Sexual selection
  • Kin selection
  • Inclusive fitness
  • Sexual conflict
  • Evolution
  • Animal behaviour

Access Status

  • Full text open

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