Evolution towards self-compatibility when mates are limited

The evolution of self-incompatibility when mates are limiting.

Self-incompatibility (SI) is a genetic barrier to inbreeding that is broadly distributed in angiosperms. In finite populations of SI plants, the loss of S-allele diversity can limit plant reproduction by reducing the availability of compatible mates. Many studies have shown that small or fragmented plant populations suffer from mate limitation. The advent of molecular typing of S-alleles in man...

EchoTree: Engaged Conversation when Capabilities are Limited

We describe the collaborative use of word tree visualizations, EchoTrees, to facilitate face-to-face, and remote communication with speech and movement impaired individuals. EchoTree is designed to bridge the inevitable conversational dead space while the impaired person uses assistive technologies to generate written, or artificially spoken sentences. Visualizations that guess multiple convers...

Flexible mate choice when mates are rare and time is short

Female mate choice is much more dynamic than we once thought. Mating decisions depend on both intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and these two may interact with one another. In this study, we investigate how responses to the social mating environment (extrinsic) change as individuals age (intrinsic). We first conducted a field survey to examine the extent of natural variation in mate availability...

Evolution: When Females are Brighter than Males

Females are usually considered to be more choosy than males when seeking a mating partner, resulting in the evolution of attractive males. When males are the limiting resource for receptive females, however, the females may become brightly coloured.

Towards an Improved Compatibility