Partitioning the Roles of Genetics and Life History in Reproductive Biology

Reproduction is key to the physiology, development, and life history of animals and its biological bases are shared across amniotes. Viviparity has evolved more than 100 times in mammals and reptiles and its evolutionary success partly stems from greater offspring success at birth. This is driven by genetic and behavioural changes in viviparous females relative to oviparous ones. In this project we will identify the contribution of genetic determinants vs behavioural strategies of reproductive success in an amniote model, by contrasting oviparous and viviparous modes. Using organismal and genetic approaches, research led by the doctoral student will (1) identify genetic variants for female reproductive success by genome-wide association analysis ; (2) screen other species for genetic variation or signals of selection in orthologous loci using the extensive publically available data and comparative genomic approaches; (3) determine if and how reproductive strategy differs between oviparous and viviparous populations, and (4) identify if there is any influence of single vs multiple paternity on life history traits within and between clutches. The experiments will involve new international field data collection, state of the art statistical and genomic analyses, molecular research and genetic parentage analysis, critical evaluation of theory and empirical results. This research is key to identifying how major changes in reproductive mode occur, resolving genetic and evolutionary conflicts between sexes and generations, and improving knowledge of influences to pregnancy outcomes.