Does microchimerism mediate kin conflicts?

Does microchimerism mediate kin conflicts?

Fetal microchimerism (FMc) is predicted to promote the fitness of the fetus and maternal microchimerism (MMc) to promote the fitness of the mother. Offspring and mothers benefit from each other's health. Therefore, microchimeric cells should usually not be harmful to their host. However, the evolutionary interests of mothers and offspring diverge when there is competition among siblings for mat...

Does Grandparental Help Mediate the Relationship Between Kin Presence and Fertility?

BACKGROUND Previous research suggests that kin availability may be correlated with reproductive outcomes, but it is not clear that a causal relationship underlies these findings. Further, there is substantial variation in how kin availability is measured. OBJECTIVE We attempt to identify whether different measures of kin availability influence how kin affect reproductive outcomes and whether th...

Sex-ratio conflicts, kin selection, and the evolution of altruism.

Kin-selection theory has thrived in the explanation of a wide variety of biological phenomena, chiefly the evolution of biological altruism as that found in sterile castes of eusocial insects. Much of the way in which it has been tested is based on the existence of conflicts over sex-ratio production within eusocial colonies. However, despite neatly showing eusocial colonies as arenas where sel...

Systemic Microchimerism

Does kin selection moderate sexual conflict in Drosophila?

Two recent studies provide provocative experimental findings about the potential influence of kin recognition and cooperation on the level of sexual conflict in Drosophila melanogaster. In both studies, male fruit flies apparently curbed their mate-harming behaviours in the presence of a few familiar or related males, suggesting some form of cooperation mediated by kin selection. In one study, ...