Battle of the sexes leads to a biological...( Rowe at the University of Toronto Can...)

Rowe at the University of Toronto, Canada, has for the first time unveiled the arms race between the sexes. In a study published in this weeks issue of Nature, they illuminates sexual conflict in a group of insects, water striders. By using a unique combination of comparative and experimental tools, the researchers show that the arms race between the sexes in these animals is indeed balanced, but not perfectly so. Male armament is not quite matched by females in some species, and females suffer very high rates of costly and superfluous matings as a consequence. In other species, females instead have a slight upper hand in the arms race, and males of such species are only able to mate very rarely. It is this relative balance between the sexes which determines their ability to achieve their interests. The study also shows that males and females rapidly move jointly up and down this seemingly endless coevolutionary spiral.

The new research not only confirms that sexual conflict can shape males and females, but also indicates that such conflicts can promote the formation generation of new species.

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Contact: Gran Arnqvist
Goran.Arnqvist@ebc.uu.se
46-18-471-26-45
Uppsala University
14-Feb-2002

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