Role Of Assortative Mating Research Articles

Find the right one. Educational assortative mating and educational reproduction in Germany

Social stratification scholarship has provided important insights into the relationship between the socioeconomic characteristics of parents and children but ignored that a generation of potential parents that does not reproduce itself biologically does not transmit its characteristics. Demographic processes are involved, such as selection into couple, assortative mating and fertility. A recent stream of research has proposed to study processes of educational reproduction starting from a generation of potential parents and observing their partnership and fertility trajectories. We enlarge the existing literature focusing on the role of assortative mating in the German context. Our results show how educational reproduction manifests differently for men and women. For women to pass on a degree to the next generation, assortative mating is crucial and shapes how the chances of having a child with a degree are distributed. A premium for female hypergamy persists across generations, whereas the penalty for hypogamy found in an older cohort did not persist to a younger one. These results suggest the need to focus not only on fertility as a demographic pathway by which the distribution of family characteristics are shaped, but also on the combination of partner characteristics.

Perfect association between spatial swarm segregation and the X-chromosome speciation island in hybridizing Anopheles coluzzii and Anopheles gambiae populations

The sibling species An. coluzzii and An. gambiae s.s. are major malaria vectors thought to be undergoing sympatric speciation with gene flow. In the absence of intrinsic post-zygotic isolation between the two taxa, speciation is thought possible through the association of assortative mating and genomic regions protected from gene flow by recombination suppression. Such genomic islands of speciation have been described in pericentromeric regions of the X, 2L and 3L chromosomes. Spatial swarm segregation plays a major role in assortative mating between sympatric populations of the two species and, given their importance for speciation, genes responsible for such pre-mating reproductive barriers are expected to be protected within divergence islands. In this study 2063 male and 266 female An. coluzzii and An. gambiae s.s. individuals from natural swarms in Burkina Faso, West Africa were sampled. These were genotyped at 16 speciation island SNPs, and characterized as non-hybrid individuals, F1 hybrids or recombinant F1+n backcrossed individuals. Their genotypes at each speciation island were associated with their participation in An. coluzzii and An. gambiae-like swarms. Despite extensive introgression between the two species, the X-island genotype of non-hybrid individuals (37.6%), F1 hybrids (0.1%) and F1+n recombinants (62.3%) of either sex perfectly associated to each swarm type. Associations between swarm type and the 3L and 2L speciation islands were weakened or broken down by introgression. The functional demonstration of a close association between spatial segregation behaviour and the X speciation island lends further support to sympatric speciation models facilitated by pericentric recombination suppression in this important species complex.

Role of DFNB1 mutations in hereditary hearing loss among assortative mating hearing impaired families from South India

BackgroundDFNB1, the first locus to have been associated with deafness, has two major genes GJB2 & GJB6, whose mutations have played vital role in hearing impairment across many ethnicities in the world. In our present study we have focused on the role of these mutations in assortative mating hearing impaired families from south India.MethodsOne hundred and six assortatively mating hearing impaired (HI) families of south Indian origin comprising of two subsets: 60 deaf marrying deaf (DXD) families and 46 deaf marrying normal hearing (DXN) families were recruited for this study. In the 60 DXD families, 335 members comprising of 118 HI mates, 63 other HI members and 154 normal hearing members and in the 46 DXN families, 281 members comprising of 46 HI and their 43 normal hearing partners, 50 other HI members and 142 normal hearing family members, participated in the molecular study. One hundred and sixty five (165) healthy normal hearing volunteers were recruited as controls for this study. All the participating members were screened for variants in GJB2 and GJB6 genes and the outcome of gene mutations were compared in the subsequent generation in begetting deaf offspring.ResultsThe DFNB1 allele frequencies for DXD mates and their offspring were 36.98 and 38.67%, respectively and for the DXN mates and their offspring were 22.84 and 24.38%, respectively. There was a 4.6% increase in the subsequent generation in the DXD families, while a 6.75% increase in the DXN families, which demonstrates the role of assortative mating along with consanguinity in the increase of DFNB1 mutations in consecutive generations. Four novel variants, p.E42D (in GJB2 gene), p.Q57R, p.E101Q, p.R104H (in GJB6 gene) were also identified in this study.ConclusionThis is the first study from an Indian subcontinent reporting novel variants in the coding region of GJB6 gene. This is perhaps the first study in the world to test real-time, the hypothesis proposed by Nance et al. in 2000 (intense phenotypic assortative mating mechanism can double the frequency of the commonest forms of recessive deafness [DFNB1]) in assortative mating HI parental generation and their offspring.

Grandparent Effects on Educational Outcomes: A Systematic Review

Are educational outcomes subject to a 'grandparent effect'? We comprehensively and critically review the growing literature on this question. Fifty-eight percent of 69 analyses report that grandparents' (G1) socioeconomic characteristics are associated with children’s (G3) educational outcomes, independently of the characteristics of parents (G2). This is not clearly patterned by study characteristics, except sample size. The median ratio of G2:G1 strength of association with outcomes is 4.1, implying that grandparents matter around a quarter as much as parents for education. On average, 30 percent of the bivariate G1–G3 association remains once G2 information is included. Grandparents appear to be especially important where G2 socioeconomic resources are low, supporting the compensation hypothesis. We further discuss whether particular grandparents matter, the role of assortative mating, and the hypothesis that G1–G3 associations should be stronger where there is (more) G1–G3 contact, for which repeated null findings are reported. We recommend that measures of social origin include information on grandparents.

Digest: Mechanisms of assortative mating and ecological speciation.

The origin of species has long held the attention of students of biology, yet this process in many ways has remained enigmatic. Of specific interest to many has been the role of assortative mating in speciation (Bolnick and Fitzpatrick 2007). Assortative mating, which occurs when individuals prefer mates who possess characteristics similar to their own, has been recognized as a critical component of speciation despite a general lack of understanding of the underlying mechanisms that drive this pattern. In this issue, Greenway et al. employ cutting edge experimental approaches in a unique study system to provide a fascinating and robust test of alternative mechanisms that can give rise to assortative mating, providing valuable insight into the great mystery of mysteries. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Mate Choice Drives Evolutionary Stability in a Hybrid Complex.

Previous studies have shown that assortative mating acts as a driver of speciation by countering hybridization between two populations of the same species (pre-zygotic isolation) or through mate choice among the hybrids (hybrid speciation). In both speciation types, assortative mating promotes speciation over a transient hybridization stage. We studied mate choice in a hybrid vertebrate complex, the allopolyploid fish Squalius alburnoides. This complex is composed by several genomotypes connected by an intricate reproductive dynamics. We developed a model that predicts the hybrid complex can persist when females exhibit particular mate choice patterns. Our model is able to reproduce the diversity of population dynamic outcomes found in nature, namely the dominance of the triploids and the dominance of the tetraploids, depending on female mate choice patterns and frequency of the parental species. Experimental mate choice trials showed that females exhibit the preferences predicted by the model. Thus, despite the known role of assortative mating in driving speciation, our findings suggest that certain mate choice patterns can instead hinder speciation and support the persistence of hybrids over time without speciation or extinction.

A semiparametric analysis of the rising breadwinner role of women in the UK

This paper describes the changes in the relative position of women in the family—as measured by their share of household labour income—in the UK between 1994 and 2004. Using a methodology that borrows from DiNardo et al. (Econometrica 64:1001–44, 1996), it assesses the contribution of changes in men’s and women’s characteristics, the market returns to these characteristics and the role of assortative mating. The main factor which accounts for the increase in the relative female earnings share is the rising female labour force participation across the whole distribution of the female breadwinner index. Changes in assortative mating have a modest positive impact on the index at the mean, 25th and 75th percentiles of the distribution. This is explained by increasing positive assortative mating between 1994 and 2004.

Intergenerational Earnings Mobility Among Daughters and Sons: Evidence from Sweden and a Comparison with the United States

AbstractThis article adopts Chadwick and Solon's (2002) model by using family earnings in the study of intergenerational earnings mobility with a highlight on the role of assortative mating. I analyze mean and quantile regression coefficients as well as transition matrices to investigate family earnings mobility between parents and daughters and parents and sons from Swedish register data. My findings indicate that Sweden has a higher degree of mobility compared to the United States, and that assortative mating also plays an important role as a channel through which income status is transmitted across generations in Sweden. However, the difference in intergenerational mobility patterns between the two countries does not, inherently, depend on factors that affect the marriage match. Swedish daughters and sons exhibit a rather similar scheme of intergenerational earnings transmission. Daughters tend to be slightly more mobile than sons, and the difference between their elasticity estimates is small but statistically significant. The quantile regression approach reveals that parents' family earnings are less important as an explanatory variable at the upper end of the children's earnings distribution than they are at the bottom, while transition matrices show substantial earnings persistence in the top earnings class.

Hybrid trait speciation andHeliconiusbutterflies

Homoploid hybrid speciation (HHS) is the establishment of a novel species through introgressive hybridization without a change in chromosome number. We discuss different routes by which this might occur and propose a novel term, 'hybrid trait speciation', which combines the idea that hybridization can generate adaptive novelty with the 'magic trait' model of ecological speciation. Heliconius butterflies contain many putative examples of hybrid colour patterns, but only recently has the HHS hypothesis been tested explicitly in this group. Molecular data has shown evidence for gene flow between many distinct species. Furthermore, the colour pattern of Heliconius heurippa can be recreated in laboratory crosses between Heliconius melpomene and Heliconius cydno and, crucially, plays a role in assortative mating between the three species. Nonetheless, although the genome of H. heurippa shows evidence for hybridization, it is not a mosaic of the two parental species. Instead, ongoing hybridization has likely blurred any signal of the original speciation event. We argue that where hybridization leads to novel adaptive traits that also cause reproductive isolation, it is likely to trigger speciation.

CALL IMITATION AND CALL MODIFICATION IN RED CROSSBILLS

Open-ended learning of flight calls has been found consistently in the subfamily Carduelinae. Understanding call learning is especially important in Red Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra complex) because calls appear to play an instrumental role in assortative mating, perhaps by acting as a marker trait that signals ecological adaptation for foraging on a particular species of conifer. We analyzed flight call recordings from a banded population of the South Hills (call type 9) crossbill to examine whether young birds imitate the calls of their parents and whether, as adults, individuals modify their calls to match those of their mates. The calls of offspring were more similar to the calls of their parents than to the average adult in the population. This indicates that calls are, at least initially, culturally inherited from parents and thereby could act as marker traits. Adults did later modify their calls to match the calls of their mates, which presumably aids in individual and pair recognition. Comparisons within individuals over time also showed that call structure decreased in similarity to the calls of crossbills with another type of call (type 2) that regularly occur in the South Hills of Idaho. This should make it easier for individuals to distinguish between individuals of different call types. However, one of 91 crossbills recorded over more than one year changed the type of its call. This type 2 female bred successfully with a type 9 male for two years and by the second year changed her call to match that of her type 9 mate.

Erratum to: Rhodopechys obsoleta (desert finch): a pale ancestor of greenfinches (Carduelis spp.) according to molecular phylogeny

The evolutionary history of three out of four birds traditionally classified into the genus Rhodopechys birds has been studied by comparing their mitochondrial cytochrome b DNA sequence with that of greenfinches and other genus Carduelis finches. The desert finch (Rhodopechys obsoleta) or a sister extinct species seems to have existed about 6 million years ago in Asian and perhaps African desert-like areas. This bird has no molecular relationship with other Rhodopechys birds and seems to have given rise to the greenfinches radiation, probably by allopatry of marginal or isolated groups; the latter would have evolved to green plumage colours and more simple song modulations (i.e., greenfinches). The possible role of assortative mating and the newly postulated acquired phenotypic characters in greenfinches speciation are discussed.

Phenotypic Plasticity and Repeatability in the Mating Signals of Enchenopa Treehoppers, with Implications for Reduced Gene Flow among Host‐Shifted Populations

AbstractMate signaling systems, because of their role in assortative mating, have often been implicated in the origins of evolutionary independence between lineages. We investigated three sources of phenotypic plasticity in mating signals with potential relevance to assortative mating in a species in the Enchenopa binotata complex of treehoppers. This group has been a model for speciation in sympatry through shifts to novel host plants. Host shifts result in partial reproductive isolation in Enchenopa binotata because of their effects on life history timing, but interbreeding is still possible if there is dispersal and some overlap of mating periods. Courtship in these plant‐feeding insects is mediated by plant‐borne vibrational signals. We asked whether variation in male mate signaling behavior is influenced by plant substrate, age, or size, each of which may play a role in interactions among host‐shifted populations. Males produced fewer, shorter signals when on non‐hosts than when on hosts. However, there were no effects of age or size on signal variation. Significant repeatability of some signal features (carrier frequency and the number of signals produced in a signaling bout) is consistent with the presence of genetic variation and thus the potential to respond to selection. Our results suggest that plasticity in mate signaling systems, and in particular in male mate searching behavior on hosts and non‐hosts, may have the potential to reduce interbreeding between populations that use different species of host plant.

Assortative mating for relative weight: genetic implications.

Most work on the genetics of relative weight has not considered the role of assortative mating, i.e., mate selection based on similarity between mates. We investigated the extent to which engaged men and women in an archival longitudinal database were similar to each other in relative body weight prior to marriage and cohabitation. After controlling for age, a small but statistically significant mate correlation was found for relative weight (r=.13, p=.023), indicating some assortative mating. Furthermore, we examined whether mate similarity in relative weight prior to marriage predicts survival of the marriage. No significant effects were found. In sum, these results are consistent with those of other studies in suggesting that there is a small but significant intermate correlation for relative weight. However, they are unique in showing that these results cannot be explained on the basis of (a) cohabitation, (b) age similarity, or (c) selective survival of marriages between couples more similar in relative weight. The implications of these findings for heritability studies, linkage studies, and the estimation of shared environmental effects are discussed.

Bird song learning: causes and consequences

This article starts with a brief description of the phenomenon of song learning in birds, and then outlines various consequences that it has for the individuals that show it and the groups to which they belong. Among these are the following features, each of which has been described in at least some species: the sharing of song between kin and between neighbours; changes in song with time; changes with distance, including the phenomenon of dialects. The final section is a discussion of which of these consequences may have functional significance and so be likely to be an advantage of song learning. It is suggested that cultural evolution, geographical variation and dialect boundaries, being features of populations rather than individuals, are epiphenomena without functional significance in themselves. However, song learning may confer advantages stemming from the copying process itself, in interactions with neighbours and in matching song to habitat. The evidence that learnt dialects have a role in assortative mating is less convincing. It is likely both that song learning has different functions in different species, and that it has more than a single function in many of them.

Influences on assortative mating

Age plays a considerable role in assortative mating. As regards this criterion we can distinguish a "rural, more traditional model" with high values of the coefficients of correlation, and an "urban model" with significantly lower values. Concerning eye and hair colour we find both these models as well as transitional forms. In contrast to this there are no important differences in assortative mating between the rural and urban populations regarding the physical traits. Size of population and length of marriage can strongly influence the values of these correlations. They decrease as the size of the population decreases, in which a person chooses his/her partner. Increasing age of the couples also results in a decrease of these correlations.

The role of assortative mating among age-classes inDrosophila melanogaster: preliminary results

A series of experiments on age-related mating success and productivity provides evidence for assortative mating among three out of four age-classes inD. melanogaster. The preferred mating does not always result in the highest productivity. Three age classes of males contribute to reproduction while only females of the youngest age-class are involved. The progeny size is more affected by the age of the females than that of males. It is assumed that these findings must have important implications for generation overlap in natural populations.

Interest of mice in conspecific male odours is influenced by degree of kinship.

SMELL affects many aspects of the social and sexual behaviour of rodents1,2. For example, fighting in pairs of male mice is increased if one of the participants is made to smell unfamiliar by rubbing it with the urine of a strange male3. It has also been suggested that olfactory cues play an important part in mate choice4. In both rats5 and mice6, females which have been reared by artificially scented mothers have, when adult, been found to prefer males treated with this same scent to normal individuals. By contrast, Mainardi7 has found that female mice, reared in the presence of their fathers, later preferred to mate with males of a different strain. The difference between these two results may stem from the degree of strangeness involved, females preferring males which smell slightly unfamiliar rather than very familiar or totally strange. The results of the experiments using artificial odours suggest that early learning provides the yardstick by which unfamiliarity is judged5,6. Such a system may have an important role in assortative mating, enabling females given a choice to mate with those males by whom they are likely to conceive the best-adapted offspring. On this hypothesis females might be expected to prefer a small degree of unfamiliarity as an adaptation which minimises the chance of inbreeding. They might also be expected to reject males which smell very strange. At an extreme, this would avoid interspecific hybridisation, but it may also be disadvantageous within a species for very dissimilar individuals to mate as this would be likely to lead to the break-up of co-adapted gene complexes and thus the production of offspring of lower fitness8,9. We report here our examination of these predictions. Our data suggest that the olfactory preferences of female mice are consistent with this hypothesis.

Effects of Marital and Fertility Patterns on the Transmission and Distribution of Wealth

Previous literature has discussed the role of assortative mating and of social class differences in fertility on the inheritance of financial wealth and the degree of wealth inequality. This paper argues that assortative mating and differential fertility play the same sort of role in the intergenerational transmission of human wealth. A path model of the intergenerational transmission of human wealth is constructed from correlations taken from the literature. Estimates are then derived of the extent to which permanent income inequality would be reduced by the elimination of assortative mating, of differential fertility, and of unwanted fertility. Social scientists have long been aware of the fact that the size distribution of income and wealth is influenced by fertility and marital patterns. If inheritances are an important part of total wealth (as they certainly are in traditional agricultural societies in which land is the major form of wealth), and if the poor have more children than do the rich, the equilibrium inequality in wealth and income will be greater than in a society where fertility is the same across social classes [22]. Similarly, the degree of assortative mating by inherited wealth will be positively related to the inequality in wealth and income. Marital and fertility patterns also have an effect on the degree of intergenerational social mobility, which could be measured by the correlation between the son's rank in the distribution of wealth or income and that of his father. This correlation will be higher The author is Associate Professor of Economics, University of Maryland. * Research for this paper has been supported by grants from the Office of Economic Opportunity and from the Department of Labor to the Project on the Economics of Discrimination at the University of Maryland. Computer time was made available by the Computer Science Center at the University of Maryland. I would like to acknowledge helpful comments from Barbara Bergmann, John Conlisk, Robert Hauser, Randall Weiss, and the editor while absolving them of all responsibility for any errors. [Manuscript received October 1975; accepted March 1976.] The Journal of Human Resources * XII * 2 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.129 on Wed, 29 Jun 2016 04:23:04 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms