Immler . . . and her collaborators reasoned there are times when sperm might want to cooperate. This might prove especially likely when animals are promiscuous and the sperm of one male have to compete against those of rival males.Link. Don't these little gametes know that vigorous, free competition produces the optimal outcome? Leave it to a rodent to reject free-market capitalism. Damn hippies.
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"Males in promiscuous species are better off by investing more into sperm production," Immler told LiveScience. "Hence, it has been shown that more promiscuous species have generally relatively larger testes."
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"When the finding of the European woodmouse was published a few years ago, it appeared to be an exceptional case occurring in this one species only," Immler said. "This research shows that when the pressure from rival males is high, individual sperm will cooperate with one another to ensure that at least one of their siblings successfully reaches the female egg."
Indexed by tags science, nature, biology, evolution, reproduction, sperm, rodent, mouse, rat, cooperation, Simone Immler, claw.
Image credits: Sperm of a number of rodent species, Simone Immler, PLoS ONE, courtesy LiveScience, borrowed for news-reporting and comment purposes.