Data from: Learning to speciate: the biased learning of mate preferences promotes adaptive radiation

Bursts of rapid repeated speciation called adaptive radiations have generated much of Earth’s biodiversity and fascinated biologists since Darwin, but we still do not know why some lineages radiate and others do not. Understanding what causes assortative mating to evolve rapidly and repeatedly in the same lineage is key to understanding adaptive radiation. Many species that have undergone adaptive radiations exhibit mate preference learning, where individuals acquire mate preferences by observing the phenotypes of other members of their populations. Mate preference learning can be biased if individuals also learn phenotypes to avoid in mates, and shift their preferences away from these avoided phenotypes. We used individual-based computational simulations to study whether biased and unbiased mate preference learning promote ecological speciation and adaptive radiation. We found that ecological speciation can be rapid and repeated when mate preferences are biased, but is inhibited when mate preferences are learned without bias. Our results suggest that biased mate preference learning may play an important role in generating animal biodiversity through adaptive radiation.

自达尔文时代以来，被称为适应辐射（adaptive radiation）的快速重复物种形成事件，造就了地球绝大多数的生物多样性，也一直令生物学家着迷不已，但我们迄今仍未厘清为何部分演化类群能够发生辐射演化，而另一些则无法实现。阐明为何同种演化谱系中会反复快速演化出选型交配（assortative mating）现象，是理解适应辐射机制的核心所在。诸多经历过适应辐射的物种均存在配偶偏好学习（mate preference learning）现象：个体通过观察种群内其他成员的表型来获取配偶偏好。若个体同时学习需要规避的配偶表型，并将自身偏好调整至远离这些规避表型的方向，则配偶偏好学习会产生偏向性。我们采用基于个体的计算机模拟方法，探究偏向性与无偏向性的配偶偏好学习是否能够促进生态物种形成（ecological speciation）与适应辐射。研究结果表明：当配偶偏好存在偏向性时，生态物种形成可快速且重复地发生；而当配偶偏好通过无偏向性学习获得时，该过程则会受到抑制。我们的研究结果显示，偏向性配偶偏好学习可能在通过适应辐射催生动物生物多样性的过程中发挥着重要作用。