BIOLOGY 101 Study Guide - Final Guide: Gonadal Dysgenesis, Allosome, Meiotic Drive
Document Summary
Meiotic drive causes deviations in sex ratio, where some alleles are over-represented in the gametes which are formed during meiosis, causing one sex to be more common. Usually there is a strong natural selection against meiotic drive. Females of acarophenax feed on eggs of mealworms, swelling to 20x their usual size. Up to 50 eggs in her abdomen develop. Most eggs develop into females and only a few (sometime just one) develop into males. Males copulate with their sisters while still in the mother and eventually the young get large enough to burst the mother open. The females go off to seek eggs to eat. The male, with tiny legs, usually dies either before or just after the mother bursts open. When there is a differential in gamete size. The sexes are different in size, coloration, behavior, etc. Sexual dimorphism is often the result of sexual selection and thus its traits can be greatly exaggerated.
