The milkshake problem helps researchers determine where to look for genetic conflict by simplifying where trade-offs may take place during pregnancy. Because fetal growth is at the heart of genetic conflict, researchers have focused on processes where conflict over resource transfers from mother to fetus can be observed. These investigations have found that the placenta, a fetal organ responsible for all resource transfers during pregnancy, is dominated by paternally-expressed genes. It releases paternally-derived insulin-like growth factors that make mom less sensitive to her own insulin and hormones that increase maternal blood pressure, both of which ultimately increase the amount of resources the fetus can use to grow during pregnancy but have the potential to harm the mother’s health.

If genetic conflict goes uncontrolled, it can cause pregnancy complications for the mother and developmental disorders for the child. In fact, there is a growing consensus among researchers that some of the most well-known pregnancy complications like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, miscarriages and preterm births may best be explained by unchecked genetic conflict.

Despite the potential role that genetic conflict plays in pregnancy complications, current medical treatments are reactive rather than proactive. A pregnant person must show signs of experiencing complications before medical interventions and treatments can take place.

Knowing how unchecked genetic conflict contributes to pregnancy complications could provide researchers another way to develop treatments that are proactive and, ideally, preventive. However, there are currently no treatments for pregnancy complications that consider genetic conflict. Though gestational diabetes can be attributed to underlying genetic conflict, a pregnant person must present with elevated blood sugar levels before doctors can treat underlying conflict over insulin production and blood sugar.

The experiences of pregnant people during the COVID-19 pandemic provide an example of why more research on genetic conflict is needed. During the pandemic, doctors saw both a dramatic decrease in the number of preterm births as well as an increase in the number of stillbirths and miscarriages. Both types of complications are influenced by genetic conflict, but the reasons behind these opposing trends are unclear.

As a woman who was pregnant early in the pandemic, my pregnancy was scary and stressful, spent at home away from the pressures of “normal” life. More research on the complex process of pregnancy and genetic conflict’s role in complications could help researchers better understand how the changes brought by the pandemic produced such wildly different pregnancy outcomes.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Jessica D. Ayers, Boise State University. If you found it interesting, you could subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Read more:
People don’t mate randomly – but the flawed assumption that they do is an essential part of many studies linking genes to diseases and traits

What causes miscarriages? A doctor explains why women shouldn’t blame themselves

Jessica D. Ayers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.