Women live longer than men due to gene in sperm
December 3, 2009
A new study conducted on mice suggests that the reason that men don’t live quite as long as women is all to do with a gene contained within their sperm. Japanese researchers have managed to create mice from genetic material taken from two female mice thus negating the need for any sperm. They managed to do this by manipulating the genes in mouse eggs to make them behave like sperm. This material was then introduced to the eggs of adult female mice so that they could give birth to offspring without the contributions traditionally made by a father. The result was mice produced from two mothers and on average these bi-maternal mice tended to live lives a third longer that normal mice.
The mice who were born of two mothers tended to be smaller than the other newborns but with a better immune systems.
Professor Tomohiro Kono who is leading the study suggests that it is a gene in sperm known as Rasgrf1 which causes men to grow bigger than women but at the expense the number of years they will live. It is thought that men grow larger than women so as to increase their chances of mating. Women are thought to be made to live longer and conserve more energy than men so that they can successfully survive the rigors of baring and giving birth to a child as well as being able to stay around to make sure that their children make it to adulthood.
In the U.K. women live an average of nearly eighty years whereas men only manage seventy-five.
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