EUROPE: A study of researchers of Exeter University says women live long instead a man. The researchers found that pressure of competition with immature survival, male has shorter age than females.
The research could show the way to further understand the mechanisms of ageing. Published in the Functional Ecology journal, the study documents how populations of the fly species Drosophila simulans evolved under various survival pressures. Mate competition and natural selection played bigger roles in the ageing of males compared to females, and cut their lifespans by one-third.
Professor David Hosken from Biosciences at the University of Exeter said: “We found dramatic differences in the effects of sexual and natural selection on male and female flies. These results could help explain the sex differences in lifespan seen in many species, including humans, and the diverse patterns of ageing we observe in nature.”
The specimens were put through elevated or relaxed sexual and natural selection and their evolution in these situations was monitored. Elevated sexual selection was simulated by grouping many males with single females. Stressful temperatures simulated a elevated natural selection situation.
The males of the species use singing, dancing and pleasant odors to court females, and the survival costs of these efforts rises in stressful situations. Under relaxed sexual and natural selection, both males and females had similar lifespans of approximately 35 days. Under stressful situations, males lived on average for 24 days, seven days less than females in similar situations.
The study shows that genders respond in different ways to similar evolutionary possibilities.
The study was funded by Natural Environment Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Royal Society.
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