Science

NNadir

(34,675 posts) Mon Jul 31, 2023, 08:10 PM Jul 2023

Nature News: Scientists Develop a Genetic Approach to Making Sex Unnecessary.

Well, that got your attention...

Here's the article:

‘Virgin birth’ genetically engineered into female animals for the first time

Subtitle:

Scientists alter the genomes of female fruit flies, allowing them to reproduce without any contribution from a male.

Don't worry; be happy. It's flies, not people, not you, not your significant other.

Excerpts from the news article:

For the first time, scientists have used genetic engineering to trigger ‘virgin birth’ in female animals that normally need a male partner to reproduce1.

Previously, scientists have generated young mice2 and frogs3 with no genetic input from a male parent. But those offspring were made by tinkering with egg cells in laboratory dishes rather than by giving female animals the capacity for virgin birth, also known as parthenogenesis.

Earlier research identified candidate genes for parthenogenesis, says study co-author Alexis Sperling, a developmental biologist at the University of Cambridge, UK. But her team, she says, not only pinpointed such genes but also confirmed their function by activating them in another species...

The title of the next section reminds me of a woman I dated briefly; it didn't work out; there's no point to telling that story.

No male needed

An excerpt:

In mammals, offspring are produced when males’ sperm fertilizes females’ eggs. But many species of insect and lizard, as well as other animals, have also evolved parthenogenesis, which requires no genetic contribution from a male, as an alternative to sex...

Another fun section title:

Less complicated than sex

Well, in my experience, it could be complicated, but then I got married and happily my wife and I reduced the complications, other than pregnancy and birth which was complicated.

An excerpt of that section:

“Parthenogenesis is the most effective way to reproduce. In animals, doing sex is very complicated,” says Tanja Schwander, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, who has studied parthenogenesis in stick insects. Studying parthenogenesis, she says, helps biologists to understand the benefits and trade-offs associated with sexual reproduction.

The new work could also help biologists to understand the evolution of parthenogenesis itself, says Chau-Ti Ting, an evolutionary biologist at the National Taiwan University in Taipei. She hopes to determine whether other species of fly have genes for parthenogenesis similar to those in D. mercatorum; this could help her to piece together how the behaviour evolved.

Sperling notes that some agricultural pests use parthenogenesis to multiply quickly, amplifying their power to damage crops.

The way things are, we need a little fun.

The full article describing the scientific details is here: A genetic basis for facultative parthenogenesis in Drosophila Sperling et al., 2023, Current Biology 33, 1–16.

Have a nice day tomorrow.