Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Evolution

The battle between the sexes

Nature volume 423, pages 929–930 (2003)Cite this article

Male–female conflict over mating rate can drive rapid evolution and lead to female refusal to mate with males from other populations, so implicating sexual conflict in the generation of biodiversity.

Sexual conflict is a pervasive feature of the living world. Although the sexes need one another, they rarely have exactly the same priorities. Males can often increase their reproductive success — the number of offspring they sire — simply by mating with as many females as possible. Females, on the other hand, are limited by their ability to produce offspring, and unnecessary matings may be costly. This difference sets the stage for an evolutionary arms race in which males are continually evolving new adaptations to get females to mate with them rather than with other males, and females are striving to resist this manipulation.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

References

  1. Martin, O. Y. & Hosken, D. J. Nature 423, 979–982 (2003).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Gavrilets, S. Nature 403, 886–889 (2000).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Chapman, T et al. Trends Ecol. Evol. 18, 41–47 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Parker, G. A. & Partridge, L. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 353, 261–274 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Panhuis, T. M., Butlin, R., Zuk, M. & Tregenza, T. Trends Ecol. Evol. 16, 364–371 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecology and Evolution Group, School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Tom Tregenza

Authors
  1. Tom Tregenza
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tom Tregenza.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tregenza, T. The battle between the sexes. Nature 423, 929–930 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/423929a

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/423929a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing