2023-07-31 13:45:35
Some scientists have identified a genetic cause of the phenomenon that allows offspring to be engendered without the intervention of a male to a female of an animal species that normally reproduces sexually, that is, through mating with a male: the fruit fly. Furthermore, once this ability is induced in a female, it is passed on from generation to generation: offspring can reproduce sexually if there are males nearby and copulate with them, or, if there are no males, they can do it on their own.
For most animals, reproduction is sexual: it implies that the female requires fertilization from a male. Parthenogenesis is the process by which the female can cause the formation of an embryo without fertilization by sperm, that is, without needing a male.
The parthenogenetic offspring of these genetically engineered flies are not exact clones of their mother but are genetically very similar and are always female.
This striking achievement, which will undoubtedly arouse suspicions in a section of society, is the work of the team of Dr. Alexis Sperling, a researcher at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
Females of some egg-laying animals, including birds, lizards, and snakes, can naturally change their reproductive process to produce offspring without any input from a male. But parthenogenesis in animals that normally reproduce sexually is very rare, usually occurring only when the female has been isolated for a long time and has little hope of finding a male to mate with.
The authors of the study have identified the genes that are activated or deactivated when the females of the flies studied reproduce without the need for a male. (Photo: Jose Casal / Peter Lawrence)
If significant numbers of female insect species responsible for agricultural pests and capable of parthenogenesis are exposed to situations that promote parthenogenesis, the pressure of natural selection could eventually cause them to reproduce only in this way. And this would represent a nightmare for agriculture, since the females only produce females, so their propagation capacity is doubled, as Sperling warns.
Sperling and his colleagues report the technical details of their achievement in the academic journal Current Biology, under the title “A genetic basis for facultative parthenogenesis in Drosophila.” (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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