Could pest hold key to mysteries of womens fertility?
A unique breed of cockroach may hold the key to explaining why women who delay having children until later life have lower fertility compared to women who gave birth in their teens. Scientists have long speculated why, from an evolutionary perspective, a woman’s reproductive history should influence her ability to have children in the future. Now, biologists at The University of Manchester have been given some clues after studying the mating behaviour of the dusky roach (Nauphoeta cinerea). “This cockroach is unusual in that it gives birth to live young, rather than laying eggs, even nurturing them in their first few hours of life,” said Dr Patricia Moore, in the University’s Faculty of Life Sciences. “The females also experience reproductive cycles and show age-related decline in fertility and so provide an excellent opportunity to examine the mechanisms by which females lose reproductive potential as they delay breeding.” Earlier research by Dr Moore showed that female dusky roaches
