Female promiscuity and genetic diversity in passerine birds

.............................................................................................................................. 9 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 11 Sexual reproduction – if you partake, you’ll have a bad time ............................................... 11 Female promiscuity .............................................................................................................. 12 My contribution .................................................................................................................... 14 The papers – goals and hypotheses ....................................................................................... 15 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF METHODOLOGY ................................................................. 19 The problem of causality in comparative analyses ............................................................... 19 Controlling for phylogeny in comparative studies ................................................................ 20 Inferring phylogeny – developments in data and technology ............................................... 21 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................................... 25 Paper I Female promiscuity is positively associated with neutral and selected genetic diversity in passerine birds ................................................................................................... 25 Paper II Promiscuity, sexual selection, and genetic diversity: A reply to Spurgin ............. 26 Paper III Migration distance is positively associated with sex-linked genetic diversity in passerine birds ...................................................................................................................... 27 Paper IV Resolution of an enigmatic avian island radiation by genome-wide marker analyses ................................................................................................................................ 28 Paper V Female promiscuity in passerine birds is dependent on phylogeny and associated with male parental care and diet ........................................................................................... 30 CONCLUDING REMARKS ................................................................................................... 33 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... 35 LITERATURE ......................................................................................................................... 37