Next, the team plans to use the yeast model system to investigate the evolution of the X/Y arms race and explore other competitive genes in the future.
“These observations provide critical mechanistic insight into how competition between Slxl1/Slx and Sly influences sperm fitness via an X- versus Y-chromosome evolutionary arms race during mouse spermatogenesis. Exploring how this arms race evolves and competes provides insights into innovative molecular strategies, driven by strong positive Darwinian selection, influencing fertility and chromosome evolution,” the team noted in the study.