ArticlePLoS biology2022
Selfish centromeres and the wastefulness of human reproduction.
Article in PLoS biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Elevated rates of nondisjunction in a selfish X chromosome that causes female meiotic drive in Drosophila testacea.Heredity · 2026Article
- Juvenile mortality and sibling replacement: a kin selection approach.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Early-acting inbreeding depression can evolve as an inbreeding avoidance mechanism.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Envisioning a new era: Complete genetic information from routine, telomere-to-telomere genomes.American journal of human genetics · 2023Review
- Evolutionary psychiatry: foundations, progress and challenges.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2023Article
- Analysis of copy number variations and possible candidate genes in spontaneous abortion by copy number variation sequencing.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- Mendel's legacy in modern genetics.PLoS biology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many human embryos die in utero owing to an excess or deficit of chromosomes, a phenomenon known as aneuploidy; this is largely a consequence of nondisjunction during maternal meiosis I. Asymmetries of this division render it vulnerable to selfish centromeres that promote their own transmission, these being thought to somehow underpin aneuploidy. In this essay, I suggest that these vulnerabilities provide only half the solution to the enigma. In mammals, as in utero and postnatal provisioning is continuous, the costs of early death are mitigated. With such reproductive compensation, selection can favour a centromere because it induces lethal aneuploidy: if, when taken towards the polar body, it instead kills the embryo via aneuploidy, it gains. The model is consistent with the observation that reduced dosage of a murine drive suppressor induces aneuploidy and with the fact that high aneuploidy rates in vertebrates are seen exclusively in mammals. I propose further tests of this idea. The wastefulness of human reproduction may be a price we pay for nurturing our offspring.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.