Molecular parallelism in signaling function across different sexually selected ornaments in a warbler
Nicholas Sly, Corey R. Freeman‐Gallant, Amberleigh E. Henschen, Piotr Minias, Linda A. Whittingham, Peter O. Dunn
Abstract
). Within a single subspecies, females in a Wisconsin population prefer males with larger black masks as mates, while females in a New York population prefer males with larger yellow bibs. Despite being produced by different pigments in different patches on the body, the size of the ornament preferred by females in each population was linked to numerous genes that function in many of the same core aspects of male quality (e.g., immunity and oxidative balance). These relationships confirm recent hypotheses linking the signaling function of ornaments to male quality. Furthermore, the parallelism in signaling function provides the flexibility for different types of ornaments to be used as signals of similar aspects of male quality. This could facilitate switches in female preference for different ornaments, a potentially important step in the early stages of divergence among populations.