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Data from: Beauty in the eyes of the beholders: color vision is tuned to mate preference in the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Cite this dataset

Sandkam, Benjamin A.; Young, C. Megan; Breden, Felix; Sandkam, Benjamin (2014). Data from: Beauty in the eyes of the beholders: color vision is tuned to mate preference in the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sk6d5

Abstract

A broad range of animals use visual signals to assess potential mates, and the theory of sensory exploitation suggests variation in visual systems drives mate preference variation due to sensory bias. Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata), a classic system for studies of the evolution of female mate choice, provide a unique opportunity to test this theory by looking for co-variation in visual tuning, light environment, and mate preferences. Female preference co-evolves with male coloration, such that guppy females from ‘low predation’ environments have stronger preferences for males with more orange/red coloration than do females from ‘high predation’ environments. Here we show that color vision also varies across populations, with ‘low’ predation guppies investing more of their color vision to detect red/orange coloration. In independently colonized watersheds, guppies expressed higher levels of both LWS-1 and LWS-3 (the most abundant LWS opsins) in ‘low predation’ populations than ‘high predation’ populations at a time that corresponds to differences in cone cell abundance. We also observed that the frequency of a coding polymorphism differed between high and low predation populations. Together this shows that the variation underlying preference could be explained by simple changes in expression and coding of opsins, providing important candidate genes to investigate the genetic basis of variation in this model system.

Usage notes

Location

Aripo Watershed
Trinidad
Marianne Watershed