EVOLUTION AND GENOMIC SIGNATURES OF PHENOTYPE ADAPTATION IN EUKARYOTES

: (Alternative Format Thesis)

Abstract

For more than one hundred years researchers has explored the extent of sexual selection from several perspectives including sensory ecology, signal design and genomics. Sexual selection suggests the existence of intersexual selection in order to produce offspring for the next generation and in the process intrasexual selection takes place. Potentially this selection pressure functions as a driver for the evolution of all the Animalia. The work presented in this thesis explores the role of sexual selection on speciation and genome evolution using odonata, an ancient insect lineage, and mammals as models. I found that male wing pigmentation has a significant association with increased speciation rates within Anisoptera. I further find that sexual dimorphism in wing pigmentation is associated with higher speciation rates among Zygoptera but not among Anisoptera Finally, I show that varying degrees of sexual size dimorphism (which may reflect sexual selection acting on species) is associated with the expansion of gene families associated with brain development in mammals. Overall my results broadened our understanding of the impact of sexually selected traits on speciation and genome evolution.

Date of Award	23 May 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Araxi Urrutia (Supervisor) & Tamas Szekely (Supervisor)