General Chat

Monogamy could be our downfall according to reports in the news this week. The stories, based on new research by the Universities of Exeter and Liverpool, has used a study of fruitflies to test the effects of mating with one partner over a course of 15 generations.

The study focused on the sex-ratio distortion (SR) chromosome and found that having multiple partners (polyandry) can suppress the spread of this chromosome, which, left unchecked would wipe out the male ‘Y’ chromosome.

To test this fully, they used two groups of fruit flies. Those who were allowed to mate ‘naturally’ with multiple partners and those who were restricted to one mate each.

Over the 15 generations, five of the 12 populations in monogamous breeding situations were wiped out because there were no males left.

The rationale behind this was that having multiple mates suppressed the spread of the SR chromosome, as males who carry it only produce half as much sperm as those without it, meaning that the sperm of the former will lose out to that of the latter by simple probability and therefore normalising the population.

Lead author Professor Nina Wedell, of the University of Exeter, said: ''We were surprised by how quickly - within nine generations - a population could die out as a result of females only mating with one partner.
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In view of the proliferation of the human race, perhaps for our species, this is a case for monogamy (if not celibacy).