This is the blog for GW students taking Human Evolutionary Genetics. This site is for posting interesting tidbits on: the patterns and processes of human genetic variation;human origins and migration; molecular adaptations to environment, lifestyle and disease; ancient and forensic DNA analyses; and genealogical reconstructions.

GWHEG figure

GWHEG figure

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Heterogamety and adult sex ratio

A recent paper published in Nature explores the causes for adult sex ratio (male-biased or female-biased) across tetrapods. The authors hypothesize that the type of sex determination (which sex is heterogametic) would influence the adult sex ratio, notably through sex differences in mortality. Although the hypothesis explained part of the variation in reptiles and amphibians, it was not supported for birds and mammals. More research needs to be done to investigate the influence of genetics on adult sex ratio.

Graphic representation of the ASR bias and the type of sex determination (XY or ZW) in the animals analyzed in the study (Pipoly et al 2015)

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