Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 4/28/2007

Question
A quote from a book by Richard Dawkins,
"Meiosis, too, is a physical
process, and it can be influenced by genes. What if a mutant gene arose
that just happened to have an effect, not upon something obvious like
eye colour or curliness of hair, but upon meiosis itself? Suppose it
happened to bias meiosis in such a way that it, the mutant gene itself,
was more likely than its allelic partner to end up in the egg. There are
such genes and they are called segregation distorters."

Why did those mutant genes prefer to go to the egg? Why does going into the egg help those mutatant genes spread faster? The book does not elaborate on the idea of segregation distorters, I tried searching for it but I could not find anything, do you think that there is another term used to describe that mutation?  

Answer
Dear Josh,

I just joined AllExperts in the Biology category, and found your question.

If I'm not mistaken, Dawkins may be using the term "egg" in this paragraph as a synonym for "zygote," as the term "fertilized egg" might have been too cumbersome.

Once a gene gets into the zygote, it's on its way to the next generation, and hence to perpetuating itself.

I hope that helps.

Dana