Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T07:29:34.291Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How Evolutionarily Stable is the Xx/Xy Sex-Determination System?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2016

Bengt O. Bengtsson
Bengt O. Bengtsson*
Affiliation:
University of Lund
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The sex of a zygote is often decided by an XX/XY sex-determination mechanism. One important property of this system is the approximate numerical equality of the two sexes (at least at fertilization) due to mendelian segregation. Does the obvious evolutionary stability of the XX/XY sex-determination system pose a difficult problem to population genetics? We study the fate of new mutations occurring in populations with an XX/XY system, where the mutations are such that they change the sex-determination system. If such mutations occur frequently and the conditions for their initial increase are weak, then the evolutionary stability of the XX/XY system is hard to understand.

Type
Symposium on Mathematical Genetics, London, 26–27 March 1979
Information
Advances in Applied Probability , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 1980 , pp. 1 - 3
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1980 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bengtsson, B. O. (1977) Evolution of the sex ratio in the wood lemming, Myopus schisticolor. In Measuring Selection in Natural Populations. Springer Verlag, Berlin, 333–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, A. W. F. (1961) The population genetics of ‘sex-ratio’ in Drosophila pseudoobscura. Heredity 16, 291–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, M. W. and Krakauer, J. (1976) Genetic modification and modifier polymorphisms. In Population Genetics and Ecology. Academic Press, New York, 547–583.Google Scholar
Fredga, K. (1970) Unusual sex chromosome inheritance in mammals. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London B 259, 15–36.Google ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, W. D. (1967) Extraordinary sex ratios. Science 156, 477–488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thomson, G. J. and Feldman, M. W. (1975) Population genetics of modifiers of meiotic drive. IV. On the evolution of sex-ratio distortion. Theoret. Popn. Biol. 8, 202–211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uyenoyama, M. K. and Bengtsson, B. O. (1980) Towards a genetic theory for the evolution of the sex ratio. Genetics. To appear.Google Scholar