2023-08-05 06:00:03
Parthenogenesis, a phenomenon where a female gives birth without the need for a male, has been induced in an animal that habitually reproduces sexually. This feat, achieved for the first time, took place with the fly (Mouche is an ambiguous vernacular name in French. The term fly (/muʃ/) comes from…) to fruit (In botany, the fruit is the plant organ protecting the seed….) Drosophila melanogaster (Drosophila melanogaster, name taken from the Greek meaning “black-bellied dew-lover”….). Incredibly, this ability is passed on to subsequent generations, making these flies one of a kind.
The researchers identified the genes that are turned on or off when these flies reproduce without fathers.
Credit: Jose Casal and Peter Lawrence
Dr Alexis Sperling, a researcher at the University of Cambridge and first author of the paper, said the genetically modified flies waited half their life (Life is the name given:) before proceeding to parthenogenesis. The results of this research (Scientific research designates in the first place all the actions undertaken with a view to…) were published in the journal Current Biology.
A strain of this fly reproduces only by parthenogenesis.
Credit: Jose Casal and Peter Lawrence
Parthenogenesis is a means of survival for some animals. However, in their experiments, only 1–2% of second-generation female flies succeeded in producing offspring by this route, and only in the absence of males.
To carry out this experiment, the research team first sequenced the genomes of two strains of Drosophila mercatorum. Once the genes responsible for parthenogenesis were identified, they modified the corresponding genes in Drosophila melanogaster, which then acquired the capacity for virgin reproduction.
Dr. Sperling (left) in the lab with a student.
Credit: University of Cambridge
This discovery was possible thanks to the use of Drosophila melanogaster, a model organism for genetic research for more than a century (A century is now a period of a hundred years. The word comes from the Latin saeculum, i, which… .). Dr. Sperling, who conducted this research in the Department of Genetics, is now working on crop pests. She hopes to study why parthenogenesis might become more common among pests.
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