Allison Welch SPIRE Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Biology CB #3280, Coker Hall University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3280 welcha@unc.edu (919) 962-3595

Teaching

UNC’s SPIRE postdoctoral program combines research experience with opportunities to develop and present courses at historically minority universities in North Carolina. I’ve taught the following courses:

● Ecology at Shaw University

● Evolution at North Carolina A&T State University

● Ecology at North Carolina Central University

Research

My research focuses on the ecology and evolution of behaviors and signals involved in mate choice. In particular, I am examining how the genetic consequences of mate choice drive the evolution of male signals and female preferences. To address this question, I use ecological experiments, quantitative genetics, tests of functional mechanisms, and behavioral studies in my research with gray tree frogs (Hyla versicolor and H. chrysoscelis). My overall goal is to understand how natural selection, environmental variation, genetic variation, and functional constraints interact to influence the evolution of a complex set of interacting traits.

Listen to Hyla versicolor

Females can enhance the genetic quality of their offspring by mating with males with high genetic quality. This genetic benefit predicts the evolution of female preferences for male traits that signal genetic quality. In gray tree frogs, females prefer male calls of long duration. My work shows that long calls indicate high genetic quality that can lead to enhanced offspring performance, and that the ecological conditions experienced by the offspring can affect this relationship between male call duration and offspring performance.

In order for male displays to signal genetic quality that can provide a genetic benefit of mate choice, display traits must be linked, genetically and functionally, with offspring fitness. To understand how male displays serve as indicators of genetic quality, I am investigating functional relationships between male quality, call production, and offspring growth and development in gray tree frogs. Work with undergraduate collaborators has linked male call duration with offspring feeding behavior and offspring lipid stores, suggesting possible proximate bases for the link between sire call duration and offspring fitness. We are currently examining the effects of male body condition, social competition, and parasite load on call production to understand proximate factors that influence male attractiveness.

While genetic benefits of mate choice are typically ascribed to heritable genetic quality transmitted from father to offspring, a female can also benefit by choosing a mate with which she is genetically compatible. I am using quantitative genetic studies of gray tree frogs to test the potential for genetic compatibility to exert selection on mating preferences. I have found genetic variation in both genetic quality and genetic compatibility, demonstrating the potential for benefits of mating with genetically compatible males or high quality males. Because mate choice for genetic compatibility may be driven, in part, by selection to avoid mating with close relatives, I have also recently begun work with microsatellite markers to assess relatedness between parents.

Selected undergraduate projects ● Grace Doty – tadpole feeding behavior ● Michael Sroka – offspring lipid content ● Tiffany Woods – offspring lipid content ● Michael Reichert – male body condition and social competition ● Reiesha Robbins – microsatellite markers ● Kristen Beckert – tree frog parasites

Tiffany Woods’ poster presentation

Publications

Welch, A. M. 2003. Genetic consequences of a female mating preference in gray tree frogs are context dependent. Evolution 57: 883-893. pdf

Doty, G. V.* and A. M. Welch. 2001. Advertisement call duration indicates good genes for offspring feeding rate in gray tree frogs (Hyla versicolor). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 49: 150-156. * undergraduate coauthor pdf

Semlitsch, R. D., C. M. Bridges and A. M. Welch. 2000. Genetic variation and a fitness tradeoff in the tolerance of gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor) tadpoles to the insecticide carbaryl. Oecologia 125: 179-185. pdf

Bultman, T. L., A. M. Welch, R. A. Boning and T. I. Bowdish. 2000. The cost of mutualism in a fly-fungus interaction. Oecologia 124: 85-90. pdf

Welch, A. M., R. D. Semlitsch and H. C. Gerhardt. 1998. The handy-dandy kitchen device–Response. Science 282: 1994.

Welch, A. M., R. D. Semlitsch and H. C. Gerhardt. 1998. Call duration as an indicator of genetic quality in male gray tree frogs. Science 280: 1928-1930. pdf

Bultman, T. L., J. F. White Jr., T. I. Bowdish and A. M. Welch. 1998. A new kind of mutualism between fungi and insects. Mycological Research 102: 235-238.

Bultman, T. L., J. F. White Jr., T. I. Bowdish, A. M. Welch and J. Johnston. 1995. Mutualistic transfer of Epichloe spermatia by Phorbia flies. Mycologia 87: 182-189.

Welch, A. M. and T. L. Bultman. 1993. Natural release of Epichloe typhina ascospores and its temporal relationship to fly parasitism. Mycologia 85: 756-763.