Evolution of sexual preferences in quantitative characters (Q805522)

It is studied how a metric character and sexual preferences for that character evolve on the base of Fisher's ``runaway process'' [\textit{R. A. Fisher}, The genetical theory of natural selection (1958)]. The phenotypic trait in the male and female is described by a 2-vector x, where the first coordinate \(x_ 1\) gives the character value and the second coordinate \(x_ 2\) the preference value. Analogously, y denotes the female trait vector. It is assumed that the viabilities of males and females as well as the probability for a male of type x and a female of type y to mate depend only on \(x_ 1\) and \(y_ 2\). Furthermore, the phenotypic values of offspring are assumed to be given by the midparental values plus a random perturbation. Given the viabilities of males and females as well as the conditional probability for a male and a female to mate, the dynamics of the covariance matrix and the mean of the zygotic distribution of phenotypes are studied. A comprehensive discussion of the results (including comparisons to other runaway models) concludes the paper.