Article in Paper - Reproduction

[Lady Muck]

Afternoon All,

I read something in a paper the other day (I was looking over someones shoulder) about a kimono dragon (I think) that had asexually reproduced itself. The paper was saying that this could be a reaction to the fact that there are less of them in the world (but I thought it also said that this one was in a zoo anyway so that cofused me too, anyhow...)

How could this just spontaniously happen? Does it actually happen a lot in nature? Is it something that could happen to humans if we were threatened with extinction or does it just happen with reptiles?

Cheers,
Lady Muck (or the artist formerly known as China Doll).

[dawkins]

Hi china (or lady muck)

A few lizards have got this ability. Im not sure about how they switch to asexual reproduction but if they are isolated without a mate a female komodo will give birth to male only offspring and then mate with her own son to start off a new population. Its unlikely in humans since women only have x chromosomes so if you switched to asexual reproduction you would only give birth to baby girls and would (excuse me for this) have no way of mating with them when they matured.

article about komodo:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml =/news/2006/12/21/ndragon21.xml

More on asexual reproduction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis

[drestie]

Hi China,
Yes, this was reported recently in Nature magazine.
This process of producing offspring without fertilized eggs is called parthenogenesis.
It was remarkable because it has never been shown to happen in Komodo dragons before.
It is not uncommon in invertebrates, but it is fairly rare in vertebrates. It has been found to happen in snakes, fish, and possibly some birds too. As far as I know, it has never been found to occur in mammals.
Apparently, when the male Komodos are around, the females mate with them and produce normal offspring, but when the males are not present the females can reproduce asexually. This is an important finding, because zoos that keep these animals often keep only females, and rotate males around to fertilize them, but when the males are not around the females can reproduce alone. This leads to a decrease in genetic diversity in the offspring. So the recommendation by the authors of the paper is to keep males around all the time, so that the females do not reproduce asexually.

[drestie]

Oh, Dawkins beat me to it! Damn my slow typing skills! ;)

[dawkins]

Yes Drestie but your answer is much more informative.

[drestie]

Well that's a first!

[dot.hawkes]

oooooooo dawkins and drestie have similar brains i can tell!

[Lady Muck]

Thank you all the D's!!!

[joko]

it happens to seahorses

[Hawkwalk]

with seahorses it is the male who gives birth.