PÉREZ-GONZÁLEZ, J.; CARRANZA, J.; MATEOSA, C. Mothers that produce sons and daughters are genetically different in red deer. Mammalian Biology. doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2011.07.006
Sex ratio theory, and in particular Fisher principle, assumes parental control over the sex of offspring through the action of autosomal genes with Mendelian segregation. In spite of the importance of Fisher’s principle in evolutionary biology, the number of studies looking for possible loci involved in sex ratio bias is, at best, very low. Newly developed genetic tools frequently allow evolutionary biologists to manage genetic data. Here we encourage the application of association tools to databases that include genetic information for autosomal loci and offspring sex to improve our knowledge on sex ratio evolution. As an example we use microsatellite markers to scan autosomal chromosomes and look for linked genetic regions associated with offspring sex in red deer (Cervus elaphus). We found a microsatellite marker (CelJP38) mapped in chromosome 27 for which females producing sons and daughters were genetically different. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that shows a genetic signal that points out an association between mother genotype and offspring sex in natural populations of a mammal.