Some sperm cells are ruthless manipulators who will literally poison their competition in the race to fertilize an egg, new research shows.
In a study published in the journal on February 4 PLOS Genetics, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPIMG) in Berlin put mouse sperm cells under the microscope to better understand the consequences of a particular case DNA sequence known as the t-haplotype. The team knew from previous research that sperm cells carrying this range tend to swim on average straight (rather than in circles of death) and faster than competing sperm without it.
Now they have found that the extremely effective sperm tactic is a little less than sporty.
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“Sperm with the t-haplotype succeeds in eliminating sperm without it,” studies co-author Bernhard Herrmann, director at MPIMG, said in a statement. The trick is that the t-haplotype ‘poisons’ all sperm, but at the same time produces an antidote that only works in the sperm. [those with the t-haplotype] and protect them. ‘
Herrmann said it was a kind of marathon “in which all participants get poisoned drinking water”, but only some runners have access to the antidote.