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Fit Females Make More Daughters, Mighty Males Get Grandsons

*Females influence the gender of their offspring so they inherit either their mother’s or grandfather’s qualities. ‘High-quality’ females – those which produce more offspring – are more likely to have daughters.*

*Weaker females, whose own fathers were stronger and more successful, produce more sons.*

The study, by scientists at the University of Exeter (UK), Okayama University and Kyushu University (Japan), is published today (9 January) in the journal Ecology Letters. It shows for the first time that females are able to manipulate the sex of their offspring to compensate for the fact that some of the genes which make a good male make a bad female and vice versa.

The research focuses on the broad-horned flour beetle, Gnatocerus cornutus, but the team believes the findings could apply to other species across the animal kingdom, even mammals. (more…)

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