Some sperm use poison to outrace their competitors
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Researchers say that the sperm wining the race to the egg often effectively poisons its competitors on the way. File Photo by Sebastian Kaulitzki/Shutterstock
Feb. 4 (UPI) -- It turns out that the sperm that win the race to the egg use variants of genetic factors, called distorters, to poison their competitors, according to new research.
Experiments with mouse models suggest a genetic factor called "t-haplotype" is essential to the production of progressive sperm -- the ones capable of winning the race
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T-haplotype genes regulate the synthesis of a molecule called RAC1, and the experiments -- detailed Thursday in the journal PLOS Genetics -- showed progressive sperm motility requires just the right amount of RAC1.