Daily non-political popular news in brief.

Ladies First: Genes skew sex ratios in evolutionary struggle

11-10-2007 · Science News Online

A gene in fruit flies favors the birth of females, until another gene comes along to restore balance between the sexes.

Keywords: ladies, genes, skew, sex, ratios, evolutionary, struggle, lady, gene, ratio

« Previous | Next »

Similar news on "Ladies First: Genes skew sex ratios in evolutionary struggle":

A new explanation for evolutionary changes in genetic sex-determination systems
10-19-2007 · EurekAlert!
The mechanisms that determine sex in animals vary widely, involving actions of different sets of genes on different chromosomes. According to a paper published in Nature (Oct. 17, 2007) this can be explained by linking sex determination genes to genes that increase survival rates in one sex at the expense of the other.
Similar news · Read more »
Evolution of genomic imprinting
09-06-2007 · EurekAlert!
How we come to express the genes of one parent over the other is now better understood and it doesn't seem to have originated in association with sex chromosomes. New research published in the online open access journal, BMC Evolutionary Biology, has shed light on the evolution of genomic imprinting, in which specific genes on chromosomes that have been inherited from one parent are expressed in an organism, while the same genes on the chromosome inherited from the other parent are repressed.
Similar news · Read more »
Gene in male fish lures females into sex
11-14-2007 · EurekAlert!
A gene has been found in male cichlid fish that evolved to lure female fish so that male cichlids can deposit sperm in the females mouths. A study in the online open-access journal BMC Biology reveals that the gene is associated with egg-like markings on the fins of cichlid fishes and uncovers the evolutionary history of these markings, which are central to the success of the fishes' exotic oral mating behavior.
Similar news · Read more »
Spiteful soldiers and sex ratio conflict among parasitoid wasps
04-02-2007 · EurekAlert!
If sterile larvae are used by each sex to wage war against the other sex, then it should be primarily females who are interested in killing their brothers. This work explains the often strongly skewed sex ratios in these wasps, where females outnumber males, due to sex differences in killing behavior. More generally, it reveals how Darwinism can be used to explore the function of puzzling animal behaviors.
Similar news · Read more »
Michigan State researcher traces the evolution of honey bee gender
10-27-2006 · EurekAlert!
A first-of-its-kind evolutionary strategy discovered among invertebrate organisms -- or honey bees -- shows how a complex genetic mechanism determines gender and maximizes gene transmission to the next generation of several bee species."This research gives us a better understanding of the sex-determining system of honey bees, as well as the age and evolutionary history of the csd (complementary sex determination) gene," said Zachary Huang, an MSU associate professor of entomology.
Similar news · Read more »
A sex-ratio meiotic drive system in Drosophila simulans
11-05-2007 · EurekAlert!
Autosomal genes defend faithful Mendelian segregation by suppressing sex-ratio distorters on the X chromosome. The molecular mechanisms of this kind of genomic policing have begun to be elucidated.
Similar news · Read more »
Mitochondrial genes move to the nucleus -- but it's not for the sex
03-22-2007 · EurekAlert!
Why mitochondrial genes ditch their cushy haploid environs to take up residence in a large and chaotic nucleus has long stumped evolutionary biologists, but Indiana University Bloomington scientists report in this week's Science that they've uncovered an important clue in flowering plants.
Similar news · Read more »
2 heads are better than 1: 2 dysfunctional DNA repair pathways kill tumor cells
04-12-2007 · EurekAlert!
Individuals who inherit one mutant copy of any one of about 12 genes that make the proteins of the Fanconi Anemia pathway are at increased risk of developing cancer. This occurs when the remaining "good" copy of the gene becomes mutated in a specific cell type. However, hope of a new treatment for these cancers has now been provided by a new study indicating that inhibiting the protein ATM can kill these cancer cells.
Similar news · Read more »
Origins of nervous system found in genes of sea sponge
06-05-2007 · EurekAlert!
Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have discovered significant clues to the evolutionary origins of the nervous system by studying the genome of a sea sponge, a member of a group considered to be among the most ancient of all animals. The findings are published in the June 6 issue of the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE.
Similar news · Read more »
Adaptation to parasites drive African fishes along different evolutionary paths
08-15-2007 · EurekAlert!
An international team of scientists from Canada (Université Laval), the UK (University of Hull, Cardiff University) and Spain (Doòana Biological Station), have discovered that a pair of closely related species of East African cichlid fishes -- a group of fish whose diversity comprising hundreds of species has puzzled evolutionary biologists for decades -- evolved divergent immune gene adaptations which might explain why they do not interbreed, despite living side-by-side.
Similar news · Read more »