Meeting Abstract
S2.1-2 Saturday, Jan. 4 08:30 Testing the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis with 21st century genetic tools BALENGER, Susan L.*; ZUK, Marlene; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities sbalenge@umn.edu
Hamilton and Zuk proposed a good genes model of sexual selection in which genetic variation (and, thus, selection) can be maintained when females prefer ornaments that indicate parasite resistance. When trait expression depends on a male’s resistance, the coadaptive cycles between host resistance and parasite virulence provide a mechanism in which genetic variation for fitness is continually renewed. Predictions of this model included expectations at both the intra- and interspecific levels. In the three decades since its publication, these predictions have been examined in models of varying complexity and tested across dozens of vertebrate and invertebrate taxa. Despite such prolonged interest, however, it has turned out to be much more difficult to empirically demonstrate the process described, in part because we have not been able to test the underlying mechanisms that would unequivocally identify how parasites act as mediators of sexual selection. Here we discuss how high throughput sequencing datasets might improve our ability to ultimately test this model. We expect that important contributions will come through the ability to identify and quantify the suite of parasites that are likely to be concurrently influencing host resistance evolution, improved phylogenetic reconstruction of both host and parasite taxa, and, perhaps most exciting, the ability to identify generational cycles of heritable variants in populations of hosts and parasites. Integrative approaches, building on current models of antagonistic coevolution and on the genomics of systems undergoing parasite-mediated natural selection, will be particularly useful in moving us towards true tests of this hypothesis. We finish by more generally summarizing how these tools might be of broader interest to the field of behavioral ecology.
