Meeting Abstract
Kin selection theory states that individuals should favor their kin at the cost of their own fitness when the benefits of inclusive fitness outweigh the costs. In clonal species, relatedness is high and kin selection would predict stronger selection favoring identical clones when compared to other clonal lineages. I studied this theory using the clonal fish the Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa). Females produce daughters that are identical to themselves and each other, and are sexual parasites to their parental species. They overlap and compete in many aspects of their ecological niche, behavioral, and life history parameters. Understanding the maintenance of sexual/unisexual species is a challenge because it violates competition theories. Behavioral differences between sexual/unisexual species may play a prominent role in allowing these species to overlap in the same ecological niche, such as aggression regulated via kinship. To test these theories, several, genetically confirmed, mono-clonal lineages of Amazon mollies were raised. Using these populations, I demonstrate that these females can recognize and prefer sister clones over non-sister clones. Familiarity was ruled out as viable explanation. Furthermore, I found that Amazon mollies could even adjust their aggressive behaviors between different clonal lineages. Together, this data suggests that Amazon mollies are able to identify identical clonal sisters and regulate their aggressiveness towards them when compared to non-sister clones and their sexual host.
