Do differences in Toxoplasma gondii prevalence influence global variation in secondary sex ratio? Preliminary ecological regression study
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Dama, S.M., Martinec Nováková, L., Flegr, J.
Parasitology 2016; 143, 1193–1203 doi:10.1017/S0031182016000597
Dama, S.M., Martinec Nováková, L., Flegr, J.
Parasitology 2016; 143, 1193–1203 doi:10.1017/S0031182016000597
Click for abstract
Sex of the fetus is genetically determined such that an equal number of sons and daughters are born in large populations.
However, the ratio of female to male births across human populations varies signi
fi
cantly. Many factors have been impli-
cated in this. The theory that natural selection should favour female o
ff
spring under suboptimal environmental conditions
implies that pathogens may a
ff
ect secondary sex ratio (ratio of male to female births). Using regression models containing
13 potential confounding factors, we have found that variation of the secondary sex ratio can be predicted by seropreva-
lence of
Toxoplasma
across 94 populations distributed across African, American, Asian and European continents.
Toxoplasma
seroprevalence was the third strongest predictor of secondary sex ratio,
β
=
−
0·097,
P
< 0·01, after son pref-
erence,
β
= 0·261,
P
< 0·05, and fertility,
β
=
−
0·145,
P
< 0·001. Our preliminary results suggest that
Toxoplasma gondii
in-
fection could be one of the most important environmental factors in
fl
uencing the global variation of o
ff
spring sex ratio in
humans. The e
ff
ect of latent toxoplasmosis on public health could be much more serious than it is usually supposed to be.