HOME >> BIOLOGY >> NEWS
Monogamy Has Its Rewards For Flies

Having sex with only one partner makes males nicer and females less defensive, at least in fruit flies. It seems the flies don't benefit from having a choice of mate. In fact, they do worse.

Male Drosophila melanogaster are promiscuous and compete for available females. To try to ensure that their sperm fertilises the female's eggs, males have evolved toxic seminal fluid that disables the sperm of other males that have mated with the same female, and carries hormones that make the female less sexually receptive, reducing the chance that she will mate again. These toxins and hormones are harmful to females, however, so they have evolved defences against them.

In short, sex in fruit flies is a running battle in which males have evolved to fertilise as many eggs as possible, while females have evolved to protect their own health. "They can antagonistically coevolve just like predator and prey," says William Rice of the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Rice and his student Brett Holland hoped to find out far fruit flies have gone in this arms race. Holland divided a laboratory population of flies into four subpopulations in which females lived in individual vials. In two of the subpopulations, each female shared a vial with three males, which competed in the usual way to fertilise her.

In the other two subpopulations, Holland forced the flies to be monogamous by putting only one male with each female. Under such conditions, males have nothing to gain by emphasising quantity over quality. "In this case, what's good for a female is good for her mate and vice versa. That should convert the arms race into a mutualistic interaction," says Rice.

After 34 generations, Holland measured the toxicity of the flies' seminal fluid by mating the males with females that were specially bred to be particularly sensitive to seminal fluid toxins. The females were 20 per cent less likely to die after a single mating with m
'"/>

Contact: Claire Bowles
claire.bowles@rbi.co.uk
44 171 331 2751
New Scientist
1-Jul-1998


Page: 1 2

Related biology news :

1. Monogamy appears to be unnatural in the natural world
2. Flies may taste bitter better, first map of insect tongue reveals
3. Flies offer clues to anesthesia-resistant memory
4. Scientists, Using Flies, Trace Genetic Links To Cancer
5. For Fruit Flies, Finding The Right Mate May Mean Offspring With A Longer Life Span, According To New Study
6. Two Modes Of Aging Discovered In Fruit Flies
7. Scientists Discover Two Modes Of Aging In Fruit Flies
8. UF Researchers Innovative Fence Helps Control Sand Flies
9. Drunken Fruit Flies Reveal Molecular Pathway Regulating Sensitivity To Alcohol
10. Fruit Flies May Shed Light On Cocaine Addiction
11. Two Parasitic Wasps Show Promise For Controlling Pest Flies

Post Your Comments:
*Name:
*Comment:
*Email:
TAG: Monogamy Has Its Rewards For Flies

(Date:6/18/2013)... extract of a yellow-flowered mountain plant long used for ... fruit fly populations by an average of 24 percent, ... Rhodiola rosea , also known as ... study leaders Mahtab Jafari and Sam Schriner. They discovered ... unrelated to dietary restriction and affects different molecular pathways. ...
(Date:6/18/2013)... DNA and this modification can occur in millions ... scientists believed that this epigenetic phenomenon actively reduced ... of researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), ... the Faculty of Medicine, reveals that this is ... may play both a passive and active role ...
(Date:6/18/2013)... University of Adelaide shows that weight gain and increased ... linked to a higher IQ at early school age. , The ... analysed data from more than 13,800 children who were born full-term. ... , show that babies who put on 40% of their birthweight ... by the time they were six years of age, compared with ...
Breaking Biology News(10 mins):Herbal extract boosts fruit fly lifespan by nearly 25 percent, UCI study finds 2The secret of DNA methylation 2IQ link to baby's weight gain in first month 2
(Date:6/18/2013)... Pensacola, FL (PRWEB) June 18, 2013 ... sleep/wake monitoring solutions for the global research community, announced ... Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Matsudo is the Scientific Director ... do Sul (CELAFISCS), a Professor of Medicine at Gama ... Paulo Program, organized by the State Secretariat of Health ...
(Date:6/18/2013)... (PRWEB) June 18, 2013 Kitware ... today announces a new Fast-Track award from the U.S. ... design-analysis environment (IDAE) for the nuclear power industry. , ... for more than 30 years, but the United States’ ... remarkable gains in power plant utilization through improved refueling, ...
(Date:6/17/2013)... FL (PRWEB) June 17, 2013 As a ... are committed to finding a cure all for acne, rosacea, ... the AARS (Acne and Rosacea Society) has ... conditions, and helping to educate the public on treatment options. ... society by announcing their daily news updates via social networks ...
(Date:6/17/2013)... and BOSTON , June 17, 2013 ... set to reach $127 billion by 2018, accounting for nearly ... recently released Orphan Drug Report 2013 from ... needs in regard to this growing segment of the pharmaceutical ... database to include in-depth, fact-based orphan drug analysis with data ...
Breaking Biology Technology:Dr. Victor KR Matsudo Joins ActiGraph Scientific Advisory Board 2Kitware to Develop an Open-Source HPC Design-Analysis Environment for Nuclear Energy Research 2Acne and Rosacea Awareness Month: Probiotic Action Announces their Daily News Updates with Insight on the Most Common Skin Conditions 2Evaluate Launches Enhanced Orphan Drug Intelligence 2Evaluate Launches Enhanced Orphan Drug Intelligence 3
Cached News: