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For longer life, give her a choice

If female fruit flies have a choice of mates for 10 generations, offspring will live longer than flies from lineages in which females get only one possible mate.

 

References:

Promislow, D.E.L., E.A. Smith, and L. Pearse. 1998. Adult fitness consequences of sexual selection in Drosophila melanogaster. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 95(Sept. 1):10687.

 

Further Readings:

Partridge, L. 1980. Mate choice increases a component of offspring fitness in fruit flies. Nature 283(Jan. 17):290.

 

Sources:

Daniel E.L. Promislow
University of Georgia
Department of Genetics
Athens, GA 30602-7223

From Science News, Vol. 154, No. 11, September 12, 1998, p. 168. Copyright © 1998 by Science Service.

 

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