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Evolutionary biology

Sex ratios writ small

Nature volume 453, pages 605–606 (2008)Cite this article

The evolutionary theory of sex ratios should apply to all creatures, both great and small. Experimental studies of the proportions of male to female sex cells of malaria parasites deliver cheering results.

Charles Darwin, the man of 'enlarged curiosity', was particularly curious about sex. He wondered, for example, why males and females are equally abundant in so many species in which males can mate with multiple females. Aren't males in surplus and a waste for such species? Darwin provided an answer, but was concerned primarily with human sex ratios. The question extends to even the single-celled protists, and on page 609 of this issue1 Reece et al. revisit this venerable problem with a study of sex ratios in a protist that is both complex and lethal — the Plasmodium parasite that causes malaria.

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Figure 1: A theory under test.

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  1. Jos. J. Schall is in the Department of Biology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405, USA. jschall@zoo.uvm.edu,

    Jos. J. Schall

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  1. Jos. J. Schall
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Schall, J. Sex ratios writ small. Nature 453, 605–606 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/453605a

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