A rather comprehensive study of the European vole has concluded that it is hard to know how “fit” genes gain predominance in a population because of what they term “sexual antagonism.” It turns out that when dominant males mate with females, the females that pass on the dominant gene have smaller litter sizes, while the females not passing on the dominant gene have larger litter size.
Here’s what one of the authors had to say:
“With sexual antagonism such as this, it’s sometimes hard to understand how different genes are maintained in the reproductive process, because if the beneficial effect is much stronger in one sex, one would assume that only the gene with best overall success should be maintained,” said Mr Lehtonen.
And, while scratching their heads, the authors tell us:
The research found that, although genes that were maladaptive for one sex were to some extent carried through to the next generation by its more successful opposite-sex siblings, the disparity in the genes’ effects for the two sexes was so strong that this would be unlikely to maintain genetic variance by itself.
The researchers also found that the dominant gene was only beneficial for males when it was rare in the population, a process known as negative frequency dependence. It is this frequency dependent effect that helped maintain genetic diversity in their study system.
Diversity? What about positive selection? What about directional selection?
Do Darwinists have any idea whatsoever what “fitness” means? One wonders.
Another day; another bad day for Darwinism!