Men with multiple mates (loose zippers) add to human diversity

by William Atkins

Thursday, 06 November 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! A U.S. study has stated that men who sire children with many different women are primarily responsible for the wide genetic diversity seen around the world. As The Rolling Stones once stated, these men have gotten their "ya-ya's out!” The article “Sex-Biased Evolutionary Forces Shape Genomic Patterns of Human Diversity” was published in the journal Public Library Of Science Genetics (PLOS Genetics). It states basically that men throughout the ages have bedded down a lot of women, which has increased the differences seen in humans throughout the world. It was authored by Michael F. Hammer, Fernando L. Mendez Murray P. Cox, and August E. Woerner (all from the University of Arizona, Tucson), and Jeffrey D. Wall (from the Institute for Human Genetics, University of California, San Francisco). Their author summary states, “Like many primate species, the mating system of humans is considered to be moderately polygynous (i.e., males exhibit a higher variance in reproductive success than females).” And, “As a consequence, males are expected to have a lower effective population size (Ne) than females, and the proportion of neutral genetic variation on the X chromosome (relative to the autosomes) should be higher than expected under the assumption of strict neutrality and an equal breeding sex ratio.” The researchers tested for polygyny in 90 humans from six human geographically diverse populations. The six populations—Basque, Han Chinese, Melanesians, Blaka, Mandeka, and San—were from three continents. Page two continues. << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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