Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Measuring and Altering Mating Drive in Male Drosophila melanogaster
Published on: February 15, 2017
Carl Düsing (1884) on the regulation of the sex-ratio
Abstract:
In three publications in 1883 and 1884 Carl Düsing of Jena gave a mathematical account of the influence of natural selection on the sex ratio based on the same argument that Darwin had advanced in The Descent of Man (1871). The argument thus became quite well known, being included in the principal books on the subject around the turn of the century, as well as in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, references to Düsing being given. By 1930, when Fisher gave a verbal account of the argument in The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, he saw no need to give references, and no other book of the period treated the subject, as a result of which Düsing's contribution became lost to view. We here give the important paragraphs of Düsing's mathematical account, translated into English.
Related Concept Videos
The Ratio of X Chromosome to Autosomes
Normal male Drosophila has a ratio of one X chromosome to two sets of autosomes. In contrast, normal female Drosophila...
Dosage Compensation
In addition to sexual development, the X chromosome has genes involved in autosomal functions such as brain development and the immune system. Therefore, males and females with distinct numbers of X chromosomes will have...
Dosage Regimens: Designs and Approaches
Dosage Regimen: Individualization
Dosage Regimen Designs: Nomograms and Tabulations
Dose Size and Dosing Frequency: Determination Methods

