Understanding how genetic variation is maintained in ecologically important traits is a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. Male Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) exhibit extreme genetic diversity in color patterns within populations, which is believed to be promoted by a female mating preference for rare or novel patterns. However, the origins of this preference remain unclear. Here, we test the hypothesis that mating preference for novel phenotypes is a by-product of general neophilia that evolved in response to selection in nonmating contexts. We measured among-female variation in preference for eight different, novel stimuli that spanned four ecological contexts: mate choice, exploration, foraging, and social (but nonsexual) interactions. Females exhibited preference for novelty in six out of eight tests. Individual variation in preference for novelty was positively correlated among all eight types of stimuli. Furthermore, factor analysis revealed a single axis of general neophilia that accounts for 61% of individual variation in preference for novel color patterns. The single-factor structure of neophilia suggests that interest in novelty is governed primarily by shared processes that transcend context. Because neophilia likely has a sizable heritable component, our results provide evidence that mating preference for novel phenotypes may be a nonadaptive by-product of natural selection on neophilia.

中文翻译：

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新型Neophia在雌性孔雀鱼中可以解释新表型的交配偏好。

了解如何在重要生态特征中保持遗传变异是进化生物学中的一个基本问题。公特立尼达孔雀鱼（Poecilia reticulata）在种群内的颜色模式中表现出极端的遗传多样性，据信这是由于女性对稀有或新颖模式的交配偏好所促进的。但是，这种偏好的起源仍然不清楚。在这里，我们测试了一个假设，即对新表型的交配偏好是普通亲友病的副产品，这种亲亲病是在非交配情况下响应选择而进化的。我们测量了八种不同的，新颖的刺激因素之间的女性差异，这些刺激因素跨越了四个生态环境：伴侣的选择，探索，觅食和社会（但非性）互动。在八项测试中有六项中，女性表现出对新颖性的偏爱。在八种类型的刺激中，个人对新颖性的偏好差异均呈正相关。此外，因子分析显示，一般嗜血杆菌的单轴占个人变异偏好的61％（偏向于新颖的色彩模式）。亲友关系的单因素结构表明，对新颖性的兴趣主要由超越上下文的共享过程控制。由于嗜酒症可能具有相当大的遗传力，我们的结果提供了证据，表明对新表型的交配偏好可能是嗜酒症自然选择的一种非适应性副产物。