Some females in certian species of animals are actually badass when protecting their offspring.

New research is beginning to elucidate the importance of promiscuity among females. Previous research has shown than infanticide occurs more commonly among social animal groups that are dominated by a one or two males. An infamous example of this would be lions. Infanticide by males occur because the males want to ensure that the females rear for their offspring. In such cases some females beginning exhibiting paternity dilution were they mate with multiple partners. This prevents males from killing the offspring because they risk killing their own offspring. Researchers studying mouse lemurs found that the testes of males began to increase when females where more promiscuous. This because the males began producing more sperm so competition was occurring after copulation instead of before. Genetically females become more incline to exhibit paternal dilution and less inclined to mate with males that kill their offspring.

This seems like an arms races of the sexes because I know that after a male lion has defeated the leader of the pride the first thing he does is kill the young of the previous male. Maybe later on females might try to mate with the male before he kills any of spring. I seems that reproduction is love as well as war.

Main article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141113142002.htm

Related article: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6211/841

Cancer Centers Racing to Map Patients’ Genes

A recent New York Times article talks about the "arms race" that is taking place in the genetic community. Millions of dollars have been spent in recent years to create a way to quickly and effectively process genetic and other biological information. Mount Sinai medical center recently developed a $3 million supercomputer capable of making quick work of this information, while other New York hospitals and colleges are spending more than half a billion dollars on research facilities! This arms race has become a crucial part of an ongoing war: the war against cancer and other diseases.

The belief is that eventually being able to routinely sequence everyone's genome would lead to "precision medicine" or treatment based on the unique characteristics of a patient's genes. John Hopkins is looking to, within the next two years, develop a systematic genomic sequencing program that also includes an individual's environment, family history and other factors in order to create preventative  medicines (seen here) specific to the individual. The hope is that by understanding the genome, and where diseases come from, that scientists and doctors can, at the earliest age, implement preventive measures and medicines to combat diseases.

Although scientists are still a long way from generating useful information from the genome, this new race to be the first to do so, will speed up the process as well as increase the amount of genomes able to be sequenced.

The genetics of life and death in an evolutionary arms-race

[caption id="attachment_7659" align="aligncenter" width="473" caption="The Aphidius Ervi on the aphid host"][/caption]

 

This is a very interesting article on the evolutionary arms-race between parasitoids and their aphid hosts. This study shows how genetic variation can influence parasite-manipulation. This study was led by Dr. Mouhammad Shadi Khudr. The researchers began the study by taking the F1 generation of 13 males and 3 females Aphidius ervi wasp and introducing into 156 cages that held a broad bean plant and an aphid colony. The researchers than compared the behavior of the aphids in the presence and absences of the wasp. Successful parasitism is noted by the death of the aphid host. The results of the study found that parasitism by a parasitoid wasp can lead to behavioral modifications in an aphid host.

“What we’ve been able to do in this study is to open the window on how the genetics of one species influence the behaviour and manipulation of another host species.” (Dr. Khudr).

 

http://www.healthcanal.com/genetics-birth-defects/37615-the-genetics-of-life-and-death-in-an-evolutionary-arms-race.html