Another meeting

Not much happened today.

I haven't been working hard enough and therefore didn't have much to discuss today.

Im still trying to read things.

heres a recently read paper.

Notes on:
Choosing Mates: good genes versus genes that are a good fit.
Mays, H.L. and Hill, G.E

on the subject of heterozygosity versus compatability:
Very important, we can't ignore the fact that a highly heterozygous male is more likely to produce offspring with homozgous recessive mutations.

on rules within rules:
ref:15 <- "this study not only supports the idea that female mice are using good genes and genetic dissimilarity simultaneously in the form of a nested rule, but also that females can alter their mate choice strategy in response to changes in the characteristics of available males."

They said this because in ref:15 the female mice would alter their mate choice strategy (either for a good genes marker or for mhc dissimilarity) depending on the variability in these traits in the available males. If there was low variability in the good genes marker they would select for dissimilarity and vice versa.

on future directions:
A comment on ref:43 <- "Shohet and watt demonstrated a negative relationship between visual attractiveness and olfactory attractiveness in guppies" This is then said to be slight evidence for antagonism between good genes and genetic similarity traits.


ref 15: This is a very good "evidence" paper.
Roberts, S.C. and Gosling, L.M., 2003, Genetic similarity and quality interact in mate choice decisions by female mice. NAture Genetics, 35, pp103-106.

ref 43:
Shohet, A.J. and Watt,P.J., 2004, Female association preferences based on olfactory cues in the guppy Poecillia reticulata, Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, 55, pp363-369