Sexual Selection and Mate Choice Dynamics
Summary
Sexual selection operates through differences in mating success and fertilisation, shaping the evolution of ornaments, displays and mating tactics. Mate choice dynamics refer to the processes by which individuals assess prospective partners, weighing direct benefits such as resources or parental care against indirect genetic advantages. These decisions are modulated by ecological variables, social context and prior experience, giving rise to behavioural plasticity in choosers and directional pressures on signal reliability. Interactions between preference functions and signal expression drive coevolutionary dynamics, influence population divergence and underpin patterns of biodiversity. Insights into these mechanisms have practical applications in conservation biology, pest management and the study of speciation.
Research from Nature Portfolio
Recent studies in Drosophila have revealed both plastic and rational components of mate choice. Manipulating the social environment of female fruit flies showed that their willingness to accept copulation depends on the quality of males they have just encountered, demonstrating context‐dependent subjective attractiveness. In parallel, investigations of male choice found that individuals sort potential mates into linear, transitive hierarchies, thereby maximising offspring production. Remarkably, this rational ordering persists when either visual or chemical cues are impaired, indicating redundant sensory pathways that ensure robust adaptive choice.
Sexual Selection and Mate Choice Dynamics publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in sexual selection and mate choice dynamics across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Sexual selection: A form of natural selection arising from differences in mating success and fertilisation.
Mate choice copying: Behaviour in which individuals adopt mate preferences based on observing the choices of conspecifics.
Transitivity: A property of rational decision-making in which preference orderings remain consistent (if A>B and B>C, then A>C).
Frequency-dependent selection: Selection in which the fitness of a phenotype varies according to its frequency within the population.
Disassortative mating: A mating pattern in which individuals preferentially choose partners that differ from themselves in a given trait.
References
- Could sexual selection be driven by the mistaken inferences of young females?. PLOS Biology (2023).
- Male attractiveness in fruit flies is influenced by previous exposure of females to males of different attractiveness. Scientific Reports (2024).
- Mate choice in fruit flies is rational and adaptive. Nature Communications (2017).
- Meta‐analysis shows the evidence for context‐dependent mating behaviour is inconsistent or weak across animals. Ecology Letters (2021).
- Mate Choice Contributes to the Maintenance of Shell Color Polymorphism in a Marine Snail via Frequency-Dependent Sexual Selection. Frontiers in Marine Science (2020).
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