February 25, 2000

Biologists Track a 'Genetic Arms Race' Between Mothers and Fathers

By LILA GUTERMAN

If the inheritance pattern can cost an organism its life, scientists wonder, why did it evolve in the first place?

As textbooks tell it, genetic inheritance is simple. A child gets a set of genes from mom and another from dad to make a matched pair. Both sets are active and together help determine such characteristics as the child's eye color, susceptibility to disease, and aggressiveness.

But it doesn't always happen that way. Scientists have