Supervisors: Isabelle DE CAUWER (EEP, Lille) & Mathilde DUFAY (CEFE, Montpellier)
Thesis subject: Attractiveness in an insect-pollinated species: the role of sexual selection
mail: estelle.barbot@protonmail.com
My PhD thesis aims at understanding how sexual selection via pollinator attraction could act on floral traits in a dioecious insect-pollinated species, Silene dioica. This species presents a strong sexual dimorphism for numerous floral traits, including flower size and number, with males being more conspicuous. Below, the female is on the left and the male on the right.
In this context, our work focuses on:
- (i) quantifying the overall strength of sexual selection and (ii) identifying traits under both natural and sexual selection in both sexes, as well as under pollinator-mediated selection for females
- disentangling selection on the number of gametes from selection via pollinator attraction using phenotypic manipulation
- estimating selection pressures on floral traits mediated by noctural versus diurnal pollinator communities
- studying in natura the effects of population and individual characteristics on pollen load, and how this is linked to genetic structure