The placenta is an organ grown by a mammal fetus that attaches to the mother's uterus. The fetus gets its nutrition through the placenta, but communication goes both ways. Certain placental cells control how much and which kinds of nutrients are sent from the mother, according to fetal needs at different stages of pregnancy. That makes sense, but you may be surprised to learn that these cells' behavior in sending such signals vary depending on whether the genes that operate them came from the father or the mother!
Genes inherited from the father are more likely to demand nutrition, to ensure the health of the child. Genes inherited from the mother are less demanding, as they tend to ensure the health of the mother and her continued ability to reproduce. This aligns with the idea of survival of the fittest, in which the fittest means surviving long enough to produce offspring. This genetic tug-of-war is only a problem during a food scarcity crisis, which happens with every species at times, including humans. The wonder is how this mechanism works at the genetic level, and how scientists figured it out, which you can read about at SciTechDaily. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Wei Hsu, Shang-Yi Chiu)
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