Mutual mate choice: when it pays both sexes to avoid inbreeding

Theoretical models of sexual selection predict that both males and females of many species should benefit by selecting their mating partners. However, empirical evidence testing and validating this prediction is scarce. In particular, whereas inbreeding avoidance is expected to induce sexual conflicts, in some cases both partners could benefit by acting in concert and exerting mutual mate choice for non-assortative pairings. We tested this prediction with the gregarious cockroach Blattella germanica (L.). We demonstrated that males and females base their mate choice on different criteria and that choice occurs at different steps during the mating sequence. Males assess their relatedness to females through antennal contacts before deciding to court preferentially non-siblings. Conversely, females biased their choice towards the most vigorously courting males that happened to be non-siblings. This study is the first to demonstrate mutual mate choice leading to close inbreeding avoidance. The fact that outbred pairs were more fertile than inbred pairs strongly supports the adaptive value of this mating system, which includes no "best phenotype" as the quality of two mating partners is primarily linked to their relatedness. We discuss the implications of our results in the light of inbreeding conflict models.     

The special delivery of a tail-anchored protein: why it pays to use a dedicated courier

The membrane-spanning C-terminal regions in tail-anchored proteins must be recognized and delivered posttranslationally to the endoplasmic reticulum or mitochondrial membrane. A paper in this issue of Molecular Cell (Wang et?al., 2010) and another recent report (Mariappan et?al., 2010) delineate early steps in this pathway.     

Selling transracial adoption: families,markets, and the colour line

This short review looks at the implications of the title of The Age of Migration. It argues that most ages, not specifically our own time, could be defined as ‘ages of migration’. It argues that the specific characteristics of our particular age are those of internal more than international migrations and a dramatic rise in a series of forms of non-permanent population movements that can better be captured under the term ‘mobility’. In terms of longer-term forms of migration, it is also deceptive to assume that they will necessarily continue to increase. The piece focuses on forms of internal migration and on mobility.     

Making it transparent. On naming,framing and administrating biobank research on native people

Despite more than 50 years of genetic research on Sámi people in Sweden, there has been very little engagement with the ethical issues related to this research. My aim is to investigate the ethical challenges in biobank research on Sámi people, to identify ethical challenges that have been overlooked and to find ethical solutions. In my historical research inquiry of published material and interviews with people that have participated in this research, my research questions have been: How are blood samples from Sámi people collected, codified, governed and analyzed? What ethical strategies have been utilized? My main findings are: Sweden acquired biobank collections from Sámi people that are not registered or cannot be traced through the biobank register at the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare. These collections entail ethical challenges concerning how the donors are identified, how the material is categorized, the regional ethical committees, governance and Sámi representation. My suggestions focus on transparency and traceability, competence and native peoples' rights and representation in biobank-related activities.