ArticlePLoS biology2015
Fitness Benefits of Mate Choice for Compatibility in a Socially Monogamous Species.
Article in PLoS biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 160 citations in OpenAlex.
- Real-time context-dependent cooperation in parental provisioning reveals fitness payoffs in barn owls.iScience · 2025Article
- Assortative Mating Is a Natural Consequence of Heritable Variation in Preferences and Preferred Traits.Psychological science · 2025Article
- Major histocompatibility complex class IIB disassortative mate choice in a genetically monogamous seabird.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Females increase reproductive investment when mated to less sexually attractive males in a serially monogamous fish.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Arranged and non-arranged marriages have similar reproductive outcomes in Nepal.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Social opportunities and mate preference improve breeding success in Caribbean iguanas.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Initial compatibility during a "Speed-Dating" test predicts postpairing affiliation in titi monkeys (Plecturocebus cupreus).American journal of primatology · 2023Article
- Mechanisms of collective learning: how can animal groups improve collective performance when repeating a task?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Positive selection on ADAM10 builds species recognition in the synchronous spawning coralFrontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Article
- Reasons for unfulfilled breeding and transfer recommendations in zoos and aquariums.Zoo biology · 2022Article
- Inbreeding Coefficient and Distance in MHC Genes of Parents as Predictors of Reproductive Success in Domestic Cat.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Article
- Why do we pick similar mates, or do we?Biology letters · 2021Review
- Simultaneous GPS-tracking of parents reveals a similar parental investment within pairs, but no immediate co-adjustment on a trip-to-trip basis.Movement ecology · 2021Article
- The role of personality traits in pair bond formation: pairing is influenced by the trait of exploration.Behaviour · 2021Article
- Mutual mate choice and its benefits for both sexes.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Convict cichlid parents that stay with the same mate develop unique and consistent divisions of roles.PeerJ · 2020Article
- What's in a Moment: What Can Be Learned About Pair Bonding From Studying Moment-To-Moment Behavioral Synchrony Between Partners?Frontiers in psychology · 2020Review
- Seeing-good-gene-based mate choice: From genes to behavioural preferences.The Journal of animal ecology · 2019Article
- Pair-bonding influences affective state in a monogamous fish species.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Research on mate choice has primarily focused on preferences for quality indicators, assuming that all individuals show consensus about who is the most attractive. However, in some species, mating preferences seem largely individual-specific, suggesting that they might target genetic or behavioral compatibility. Few studies have quantified the fitness consequences of allowing versus preventing such idiosyncratic mate choice. Here, we report on an experiment that controls for variation in overall partner quality and show that zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) pairs that resulted from free mate choice achieved a 37% higher reproductive success than pairs that were forced to mate. Cross-fostering of freshly laid eggs showed that embryo mortality (before hatching) primarily depended on the identity of the genetic parents, whereas offspring mortality during the rearing period depended on foster-parent identity. Therefore, preventing mate choice should lead to an increase in embryo mortality if mate choice targets genetic compatibility (for embryo viability), and to an increase in offspring mortality if mate choice targets behavioral compatibility (for better rearing). We found that pairs from both treatments showed equal rates of embryo mortality, but chosen pairs were better at raising offspring. These results thus support the behavioral, but not the genetic, compatibility hypothesis. Further exploratory analyses reveal several differences in behavior and fitness components between "free-choice" and "forced" pairs.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.