Under female control: egg defence, adaptive sex allocation, and sperm selection

性冲突在配子水平上很普遍，雌性可能通过调节精子进入的受精障碍来对精子竞争做出反应。令人惊讶的是，女性对受精的控制程度尚不清楚，女性用来操纵受精事件的具体机制也鲜为人知。该项目将结合利用整个生物体的创新调查和体外受精技术来分离研究它们的配子。该项目在游戏交互方面提供了开创性的工作，这是以前没有描述过的。它将扩展关于哺乳动物成功受精的机制的知识，并为不孕不育的病因学提供关键的见解。

Sexual conflict is prevalent at the gametic level, and females may respond to sperm competition via fertilisation barriers that mediate sperm entry. Surprisingly, the extent of female control over fertilisation is unknown, and the specific mechanisms that females utilise to manipulate fertilisation events are poorly understood. This project will combine innovative investigations that utilise whole organisms and in vitro fertilisation technology to study their gametes in isolation. The project offers pioneering work on gametic interactions that have not previously been characterised. It will extend knowledge on the mechanisms that underpin successful mammalian fertilisation and provide critical insight into the etiology of infertility.