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Science 20 June 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5627, pp. 1949 - 1951
DOI: 10.1126/science.1083109
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Reports

Morphs, Dispersal Behavior, Genetic Similarity, and the Evolution of Cooperation

Barry Sinervo1,2* and Jean Clobert2

Genetic similarity owing to kin relationship is often invoked to explain the evolution of social cooperation. In this study, male color morphs of side-blotched lizards settle nonrandomly with respect to genetic similarity. Blue morphs tend to settle in close proximity to other blue morphs with high genetic similarity. Blue neighbors have three times the average fitness of blue males lacking such neighbors. Conversely, genetically similar males depress fitness of the orange morph. Moreover, orange males are hyperdispersed with respect to genetic similarity. Pedigree and dispersal data show that genetically similar blue neighbors are not kin. Instead, conditions for the evolution of dispersal and cooperation are promoted by an emergent property of the morph locus that increases genetic similarity within morphs: genome-wide correlational selection links many traits to the morph locus, including settlement behavior.

1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Earth and Marine Sciences Building, A316, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
2 Laboratoire D'Ecologie, CNRS-UMR 7625, Bat A–7eme etage-Case 237, 7 Quai Saint Bernard, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sinervo{at}biology.ucsc.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Correlates of reproductive success in male lizards of the alpine species Iberolacerta cyreni.
A. Salvador, J. A. Diaz, J. P. Veiga, P. Bloor, and R. P. Brown (2008)
Behav. Ecol. 19, 169-176
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Mother-offspring interactions do not affect natal dispersal in a small rodent.
J-F Le Galliard, G Gundersen, and H Steen (2007)
Behav. Ecol. 18, 665-673
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mother-offspring competition promotes colonization success.
J. Cote, J. Clobert, and P. S. Fitze (2007)
PNAS 104, 9703-9708
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Discrete genetic variation in mate choice and a condition-dependent preference function in the side-blotched lizard: implications for the formation and maintenance of coadapted gene complexes.
C. Bleay and B. Sinervo (2007)
Behav. Ecol. 18, 304-310
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Self-recognition, color signals, and cycles of greenbeard mutualism and altruism.
B. Sinervo, A. Chaine, J. Clobert, R. Calsbeek, L. Hazard, L. Lancaster, A. G. McAdam, S. Alonzo, G. Corrigan, and M. E. Hochberg (2006)
PNAS 103, 7372-7377
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Physiological Epistasis, Ontogenetic Conflict and Natural Selection on Physiology and Life History.
B. Sinervo and R. Calsbeek (2003)
Integr. Comp. Biol. 43, 419-430
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)