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Early learning influences species assortative mating preferences in Lake Victoria cichlid fish
Open accessAbstract
The Lake Victoria ‘species flock’ of cichlids is puzzling because reproductive isolation often occurs in the absence of substantial ecological differences among species. Theory predicts that this cannot evolve with most genetic mechanisms for mate choice. We provide the first evidence that learning, in the form of sexual imprinting, helps maintain reproductive isolation among closely related cichlid species. Using a cross-fostering experiment, we show that young females develop a sexual preference for males of their foster mothers' species, even reversing species assortative mating preferences. We suggest that learning creates favourable conditions for reproductive isolation to evolve.
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Cited by
Beyond DNA: integrating inclusive inheritance into an extended theory of evolution
Danchin, É., Charmantier, A., Champagne, F. A., Mesoudi, A., Pujol, B., & Blanchet, S. (2011) · Nature Reviews Genetics · doi:10.1038/nrg3028 · Cited by 860
“Subsequently, early-in-life cross-fostering experiments between these sister species resulted in the complete reversal of each species' assortative mating preferences, suggesting that early social imprinting is sufficient to explain variations in mating preference”
BackgroundA framework for comparing processes of speciation in the presence of gene flow
SMADJA, C. M., & BUTLIN, R. K. (2011) · Molecular Ecology · doi:10.1111/j.1365-294x.2011.05350.x · Cited by 335
Early environment influences later performance in fishes
Jonsson, B., & Jonsson, N. (2014) · Journal of Fish Biology · doi:10.1111/jfb.12432 · Cited by 311
Metadata
- Authors
- Verzijden, M. N., & ten Cate, C.
- Venue
- Biology Letters
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2007-02-07
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 134-136
- ISSN
- 1744-9561 (ISSN-L)
- 1744-957X
- OpenAlex
- W2170526145
- Cited by
- 169
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 12.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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- Verzijden, M. N., & ten Cate, C. (2007). Early learning influences species assortative mating preferences in Lake Victoria cichlid fish. Biology Letters. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2006.0601
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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