Question

Selfish genes work with many other things. One is sexual selection. What are some examples of the interplay between selfish genes and sexual selection?

Answer 1

Sexual selection has many attributes and is characterized by intense competition of males for females, an enormous variety of the strategies to maximize male reproductive success, co-evolution of sexual traits in males and females, etc.

Sexual selection, selfish genes, and genetic conflict provide compelling explanations for many atypical features of gene expression in spermatogenic cells including the gross overexpression of certain mRNAs, transcripts encoding truncated proteins that cannot carry out basic functions of the proteins encoded by the same genes in somatic cells, the large number of gene families containing paralogous genes encoding spermatogenic cell-specific isoforms, the large number of testis-cancer-associated genes that are expressed only in spermatogenic cells and malignant cells, and the overbearing role of Sertoli cells in regulating the number and quality of spermatozoa.