Abstract
Assortative mating has been a focus of considerable research because of its potential to influence biodiversity at many scales. Sharon et al. (2010) discovered that an inbred strain of Drosophila melanogaster mated assortatively based on the diet of previous generations, leading to initial reproductive isolation without genetic evolution. This behavior was reproduced by manipulating the microbiome independently of the diet, pointing to extracellular bacterial symbionts as the assortative mating cue. To further investigate the biological significance of this result, we attempted to reproduce this phenomenon in an independent laboratory using different genotypes and additional mating assays. Supporting the previous result, we found that a different inbred strain also mated assortatively based on the diets of previous generations. However, we were unable to generate assortative mating in an outbred strain from North Carolina. Our results support the potential for non-genetic mechanisms to influence reproductive isolation, but additional work is needed to investigate the importance of this mechanism in natural populations of Drosophila.
Highlights
Assortative mating is a term that describes when individuals choose mates on the basis of a shared phenotype or genotype
Assortative mating is key to behavioral isolation between populations, which is a crucial step in the speciation process (Coyne & Orr, 2004)
Assortative mating is known to be affected by non-genetic inheritance in some systems, such as cultural transmission in birds and fish (Crews et al, 2007; How to cite this article Najarro et al (2015), Choosing mates based on the diet of your ancestors: replication of non-genetic assortative mating in Drosophila melanogaster
Summary
Assortative mating is a term that describes when individuals choose mates on the basis of a shared phenotype or genotype. Assortative mating (sometimes referred to as positive assortative mating) has been found in many natural populations, where it can have important effects on diversity (Wright, 1921; Jiang, Bolnick & Kirkpatrick, 2013). Assortative mating is key to behavioral isolation between populations, which is a crucial step in the speciation process (Coyne & Orr, 2004). The ease with which behavioral isolation can arise is an important variable in some models of sympatric speciation (Kondrashov & Kondrashov, 1999), with non-genetic causes of assortative mating receiving increasing attention as important factors (Pfennig & Servedio, 2013).
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