Komodo Dragons, virgin birth

[#juan]

Apparently, Lady Komodo Dragons don't need male Komodo Dragons to multiply.

A British zoo on Wednesday announced the virgin birth of five Komodo dragons, giving scientists new hope for the captive breeding of the endangered species.
In an evolutionary twist, the newborns' eight-year-old mother, Flora, shocked staff at the Chester Zoo in northern England when she became pregnant without ever having a male partner or even being exposed to the opposite sex.

A zoo keeper holds one of the five newly hatched Komodo dragons at Chester Zoo.
(Dave Thompson/Associated Press) ​

"Flora is oblivious to the excitement she has caused but we are delighted to say she is now a mum and dad," said a delighted Kevin Buley, the zoo's curator of lower vertebrates and invertebrates.


http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/24/komodo-birth.html

 

[hermanntrude]

as usual the news is made to seem shocking. But i suspect that this wasnt a huuge surprise to the keepers or to anyone who knew about komodos. Two clues:

1) komodos are known to lay eggs unfertilised. This is common in reptiles known to undergo parthenogenesis

2)the scientists tested the eggs rather than just leaving them to rot or throwing them away.

BTW parthenogenesis is a possibility for the virgin mary as well, although would be significantly rarer than for a reptile. Also could still be a result of God's work

 

[#juan]

A little more info

Parthenogenesis among reptiles is rare. Only a few species have the ability to reproduce asexually. Most of these are obligate parthenogenetic species that consist (almost) entirely of females, which can reproduce solely through parthenogenesis. Rarer are sexual species that only sporadically reproduce through parthenogenesis. A female Python molurus bivittatus (Reptilia, Boidae) from the Artis Zoo, Amsterdam, produced eggs in five consecutive years that contained embryos while she was isolated from males. These eggs might be fertilized with stored sperm, or might be the product of parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesis has not been shown for the Boidae family before. We performed parentship analyses on the snake and seven of her embryos using microsatellites and AFLP. Four microsatellite loci developed for this species combined with three loci developed previously for different snake species revealed too little variation to discriminate between sperm retention and parthenogenesis. With AFLP we were able to confirm that the Artis Zoo female reproduced parthenogenetically. Because the offspring are genetically identical to their mother, whereas in previous studies on sporadic parthenogenesis in snakes a loss of genetic information was reported, we conclude that the meiotic pathways that produce the diploid egg cells are different.

 

[karrie]

as usual the news is made to seem shocking. But i suspect that this wasnt a huuge surprise to the keepers or to anyone who knew about komodos. Two clues:

1) komodos are known to lay eggs unfertilised. This is common in reptiles known to undergo parthenogenesis

2)the scientists tested the eggs rather than just leaving them to rot or throwing them away.

I think they still oughta do some DNA tests, rule out any of the zookeepers as the father. After all, we did just have a 'puppy rape' article on here.

 

[hermanntrude]

nasty. I don't want to be reminded. anyway interspecies reproduction is impossible i think. In fact i think that's part of what the definition of a species is

 

[hermanntrude]

and you SERIOUSLY don't want to try to rape a komodo

 

[karrie]

and you SERIOUSLY don't want to try to rape a komodo

Well, I'd have thought the same of a pitbull too!

 

[hermanntrude]

pitbull vs komodo. no contest. seriously...

 

[hermanntrude]

komodo's are REALLY ugly!

 

[Tonington]

Mmm. thats for sure, flesh eating bacteria, blah. Anyone who rapes an animal isn't exactly high on the rationality scale in the first place...

 

[#juan]

Just a thought

in previous studies on sporadic parthenogenesis in snakes a loss of genetic information was reported, we conclude that the meiotic pathways that produce the diploid egg cells are different.

If in parthenogenesis, some genetic information is lost, I wonder if this process isn't some kind of safety thing so that for isolated females, if there are no males around, there will still be viable females, maybe until such time as a male shows up for the next generation.

 

[RomSpaceKnight]

nasty. I don't want to be reminded. anyway interspecies reproduction is impossible i think. In fact i think that's part of what the definition of a species is

What about donkeys, horses and resulting mules? If they can make tobacco plants glow with firefly genes, I bet a complete cross phylum species is due soon. Maybe a pig with vegetable genes for an all in one meal.