(Press-News.org) KNOXVILLE—Two Tennessee high school students have now done what many scientists strive for: publishing their research in a top science journal.
Dalton Chaffee and Hayes Griffin worked with mentor R. Tucker Gilman, a former postdoctoral research fellow at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to study mate choice.
Their work was published this week in the journal Evolution.
The students began their research between their junior and senior years at Bearden High School in Knoxville. They wanted to know why individuals choose the mates they choose.
Using a combination of analytical models and individual-based mathematical simulations, Chaffee and Griffin made several important discoveries that shed new light on how mate choice is influenced by "sexual imprinting," a process whereby individuals express preference for mates with traits similar to their mothers, to their fathers, or to other adult members in their population. It is known from field studies that females of many species are choosier about mating partners than males are.
"Sexual imprinting is common in nature, but different species do it different ways, and how it evolves is poorly understood," said Gilman. "Dalton and Hayes wanted to know why different species should evolve to imprint on different individuals."
The research showed that if the apparatus females use to identify and select their preferred mates requires a lot of effort to maintain—for example, if they must have special cells in their eyes to see male colors—then sexual imprinting will not evolve. This suggests that a complex apparatus used for sexual imprinting must evolve initially for some other reason, such as to avoid predators.
When imprinting does evolve, females will choose mates like their fathers—which increases the likelihood of viable offspring and sons that are sexually attractive to females—like the fathers were to the mothers.
In situations where the father is absent, females can evolve to imprint on their mothers or on randomly selected adult males. This kind of imprinting allows females to select mates that will give them viable offspring, but it doesn't guarantee that these offspring, particularly sons, will be sexually attractive like the females' fathers were to the mothers.
"The paper gives researchers and empirical scientists alike a better idea of the circumstances under which different types of sexual imprinting develop," Chaffee said. "Hopefully, this will in turn allow them to better understand sexual selection, both for individual species and on a large scale."
Chaffee said that he and Griffin spent about 20 hours each week on the project, including reading reams of biological studies about sexual imprinting and learning how to use sophisticated computer programming software to run their simulations.
"Just reading was extremely difficult, as much of the jargon and format was completely unfamiliar and very complex," he said.
Gilman said he was impressed with the students' drive and initiative.
"Dalton and Hayes needed very little guidance and demonstrated a great deal of commitment to the project," said Gilman, now a faculty member at the University of Manchester, UK. "Their results explain something completely new about the way mate choice and sexual selection work, and will motivate future work in these fields. That is quite an achievement for scientists at any level."
The research won a regional finalist award last year in the nationwide Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology and was also presented at the international meeting of the Society for Mathematical Biology in 2012.
"The entire experience was by far the most strenuous academic task I have undertaken, but it was also the most rewarding," said Chaffee.
This fall, Chaffee will be a freshman at Purdue University and Griffin will be a freshman at Duke University.
INFORMATION:
The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) brings together researchers from around the world to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to investigate solutions to basic and applied problems in the life sciences. To learn more, visit http://www.nimbios.org.
Citation: Chaffee DW, Hayes G, Gilman RT. 2013. Sexual imprinting: What strategies should we expect to see in nature? Evolution. [Online]
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evo.12226/abstract
C O N T A C T:
Catherine Crawley
NIMBioS
(865) 974-9350
ccrawley@nimbios.org
Tennessee high school students publish in top science journal
2013-08-27
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Stem cells may do best with a little help from their friends
2013-08-27
Like volunteers handing out cups of energy drinks to marathon runners, specially engineered "helper cells" transplanted along with stem cells can dole out growth factors to increase the stem cells' endurance, at least briefly, Johns Hopkins researchers report. Their study, published in the September issue of Experimental Neurology, is believed to be the first to test the helper-cell tactic, which they hope will someday help to overcome a major barrier to successful stem cell transplants.
"One of the bottlenecks with stem cell therapy is the survival of cells once they're ...
Hybrid screening strategy emerges for colorectal cancer
2013-08-27
A strategy that combines two effective colorectal cancer screening methods, fecal immunological test and colonoscopy, may improve prevention and detection of colorectal cancer and reduce costs, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CGH), the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.
The study used a simulation model to test a hybrid screening strategy consisting of annual or biennial fecal immunological test at younger ages (50 to 65 years of age), combined with a single colonoscopy when the patient ...
How quickly can a bacterium grow?
2013-08-27
CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- All living things must obey the laws of physics — including the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the universe's disorder, or entropy, can only grow. Highly ordered cells and organisms appear to contradict this principle, but they actually do conform because they generate heat that increases the universe's overall entropy.
Still, questions remain: What is the theoretical threshold for how much heat a living cell must generate to fulfill its thermodynamic constraints? And how closely do cells approach that limit?
In a recent paper in the ...
African-American women less likely to receive HPV vaccine than whites, Pitt study finds
2013-08-27
PITTSBURGH, Aug, 27, 2013 – Even with access to health care, African-American women are less likely to receive the vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV), which reduces the risk for cervical cancer, according to a study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The findings, published today in the Journal of Adolescent Health, suggest a need for health care providers to both bolster HPV vaccination recommendations and address negative attitudes toward the vaccine among this vulnerable patient population.
HPV is a sexually transmitted infection ...
Rim Fire update Aug. 27, 2013
2013-08-27
From Inciweb.org: Fire crews had their hands full with very active fire behavior today. Near Duckwall Ridge, the fire spotted across the line with crews working to control the spot. The fire also crossed the 3N01 road in Reynolds Creek, prompting an expansion of the evacuation advisory in the Highway 108 corridor. Fire crews also were working to contain a spot fire in the southeast portion of the fire as it crossed to the south of Highway 120 at Ackerson Flat. Firefighters were successful in completing dozer line below Pilot Ridge, effectively slowing the fires spread in ...
Supervolcanic ash can turn to lava miles from eruption, MU scientists find
2013-08-27
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Supervolcanoes, such as the one sitting dormant under Yellowstone National Park, are capable of producing eruptions thousands of times more powerful than normal volcanic eruptions. While they only happen every several thousand years, these eruptions have the potential to kill millions of people and animals due to the massive amount of heat and ash they release into the atmosphere. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have shown that the ash produced by supervolcanoes can be so hot that it has the ability to turn back into lava once it hits the ...
Calcium supplements may not prevent bone loss in women with breast cancer
2013-08-27
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – August 27, 2013 – Women undergoing treatment for breast cancer are widely prescribed calcium and vitamin D supplements to prevent and manage osteoporosis, an unwanted side effect of breast cancer therapies. However, new research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center finds that the recommended daily doses of these supplements may not prevent loss of bone mineral density (BMD) in these women.
Study author Gary G. Schwartz, Ph.D., a cancer epidemiologist at Wake Forest Baptist, said the purpose of the study was to examine whether a seemingly common ...
Illegal fires set in Indonesia cause smog problem
2013-08-27
Widespread wildfires are lighting up Indonesia, but these fires were not started accidentally. These fires were set deliberately to clear land for palm oil companies. This type of "slash-and-burn" agricultural has been used for centuries to clear land for new planting, however, the setting of such fires is now illegal in Indonesia. That doesn't seem to be stopping plantation owners from continuing this practice. The Huffington Post reports that Laurel Sutherlin of the Rainforest Action Network, a San Francisco-based environmental organization sent the paper an email ...
New research shows benefit of interval training for women
2013-08-27
BOWLING GREEN, O. -- Interval training is a well-known way to get the maximum benefits of exercise in the shortest amount of time. New research shows that when it comes to running, women may get more out of high intensity interval training (HIIT) than their male counterparts.
"Sex-specific Responses to Interval Training" was conducted by Drs. Matt Laurent and Matt Kutz, Human Movement, Sport and Leisure Studies at Bowling Green State University; Lauren Vervaecke, Division of Applied Physiology, University of South Carolina; and Dr. Matt Green, Department of Health, Physical ...
Hispanics urged to perform skin self-exams, discuss cancer risk with physicians
2013-08-27
This news release is available in Spanish. More than three-quarters of Hispanics patients in North Carolina aren't performing skin self-exams (SSE) to detect possible skin cancers, and physicians need to do a better job of educating their patients about this potentially life-saving practice, say researchers in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Study results were reported earlier this year in the Research Letters section of the Archives of Dermatology.
"We know that the rates of melanoma, one of the deadliest skin cancers, ...