On Tue, 27 Jan 2004, Damien Sullivan wrote: > On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 07:06:59PM -0800, Philip Hart wrote: > > > > I think sperm in general are parasite gametes in the sexual process; > > > some thought is that the original sexual gametes would have been 'fair', > > > or equal in size, but it makes sense for one half to cheat and make lots > > > of smaller gametes and off the race goes. The same logic should > > > probably apply to actual males, except when offset by > > > competition-for-mating issues, which turns out to be pretty often. > > > > The argument in Matt Ridley's _The Red Queen_ has it that sperm are small > > because of selfish gene effects between the X and Y chromosome and the > > female mitochondria genes fighting for dominance or something - and maybe > > something having to do with parasitism. Maybe time for a reread. > > I should be clear: I didn't mean that sperm came from some external > parasite, just that they're being selfish, putting most of the work of > reproduction onto the egg. Ok, if anyone cares about this they can check out the chapter "Genetic Mutiny and Gender" in Ridley's _The Red Queen_, which is where I got the latter two points (the first being either pararectal or related to the 2nd point) - sperm have their organelles stripped (so they don't fight with the egg organelles) and their cytoplasm siphoned off (in order to get rid of cellular parasites). He's a really excellent (if a tad political) science writer I recommend to everybody. Dawkins's _The Selfish Gene_ touches on these points but I find it a lot harder to follow. Sperm competition is also important (depending on the species). Ridley says we make "kamikaze sperm" which may act to impede rivals' sperm...