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Sperm dumping as a defense against meiotic drive

Tom Price1*, Zenobia Lewis2 and Nina Wedell1

Author Affiliations

1 Ecology and Conservation, School of Biosciences, Cornwall Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9EZ, UK

2 Graduate School of Environmental Science, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan

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Journal of Biology 2009, 8:6 doi:10.1186/jbiol109

Published: 20 January 2009

Abstract

Sperm from Drosophila simulans that carry a sex-ratio distorter is preferentially lost from females' sperm-storage organs. This suggests that sperm dumping is a major factor affecting sperm competition in this species, and may have evolved in response to sex-ratio distorters.