clhs sciblog

Why aren’t all animals extinct? The answer is simply polyandry. Polyandry is when an animal has more than one mate.  Many different types of species practice polyandry. In order for populations of some animals to survive they must have more than one mate.  Scientists experimented on a specie of fruit flies called Drosophila Pseudoobscuras. They took one group of flies and allowed the females to mate with who ever they wanted as it is in the wild.  While they made the other group aloud to only mate with one partner. By doing this the scientists wanted to test which group would die first and what the cause of death was.

The group that was monogomous resulted in the extinction of 5 out of 12 colonies. Scientists realized that there was a sex-ratio distortion in the flies, which would produce more female offspring than male offspring. The female flies carry the chromosome for the sex-ratio distortion. Then the male fly’s sperm would often die before it had a chance to fertilize the female’s eggs. This resulting in many female offspring and male offspring with the sex-ratio chromosome. On the other hand the group that was polyandrous, flourished and did not become extinct, because when the flies are monogamous the sex-ratio trait is gotten rid of.  When the female fly has many mates they do not need the sperm of the SR trait male fly because there are other normal male flies.

This new discovery can greatly benefit our world if we ever need to repopulate the world. Then we shall be polyandrous.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100225122655.htm

Q3-P2