All Female Species Found

[ElectricFetus]

there are many "all female species" in the world, asexual to be exact.

[Orleander]

so whats so important about the ants then?

[Burada]

so whats so important about the ants then?

It's not the ants you have to worry about. It's the uncles.

[Naturelles]

There's a insect called the sausage fly, which is actually a male ant of some south american species, forgot the name.

But the male looks morphologically very different than the females

[GeoffP]

I strongly suspect that all ants of that species stem from one queen though.


How would it have changed if all they do is cloning themselves ?

Mutation.

What a mixed blessing that species must be. All female, yet no sex. Another little cosmic joke.

[Orleander]

Mutation.

What a mixed blessing that species must be. All female, yet no sex. Another little cosmic joke.

oh please. they still have sex. They just don't fake it anymore.

[GeoffP]

oh please. they still have sex. They just don't fake it anymore.

Ooooh, that was a nasty one.

My salutations, madam!

[Roman]

How would it have changed if all they do is cloning themselves ?

True. AFAIK, invertebrates lack an adaptive immune system like we have.

[GeoffP]

Again: mutation, lads.

[Roman]

Again: mutation, lads.

Oh. Hypervariable gametic mutations. That's pretty obvious. Heh.

[GeoffP]

np

I wonder if cheap reproduction (being r selected like Daphnia and insects and whatnot) means more opportunities for mutations/genetic variance on a base-pair by base-pair level than larger k-selected animals like deer and rhinos.

[Roman]

np

I wonder if cheap reproduction (being r selected like Daphnia and insects and whatnot) means more opportunities for mutations/genetic variance on a base-pair by base-pair level than larger k-selected animals like deer and rhinos.

Rates of evolution (change in gene frequency over time) do depend on generation time. Yeasts evolve faster than us, simply because they reproduce ever 24 hours, not every 24 years.

Also, as far as mammals go, I'd consider deer more r than k-selected, considering they are so delicious.

[Enmos]

Mutation.

Of course random mutation takes place. But that can hardly be relied upon for significant genetic diversity (I guess), unless they evolved a crappy error correction system..

What a mixed blessing that species must be. All female, yet no sex. Another little cosmic joke.

Yea, imagine that. At least there aren't any male ants to be sad about the lack of lesbian action

[Enmos]

Rates of evolution (change in gene frequency over time) do depend on generation time. Yeasts evolve faster than us, simply because they reproduce ever 24 hours, not every 24 years.

Doesn't that only go for sexual reproduction ? Cloning in itself doesn't leave room from any gene frequencies to change.

[Roman]

Of course random mutation takes place. But that can hardly be relied upon for significant genetic diversity (I guess), unless they evolved a crappy error correction system.

Use of error prone DNApol in regions where diversity is useful (resistance against pathogens) would solve the problem. We use a sloppy polymerase in our B cells during B cell proliferation to compete with viral mutations.

Doesn't that only go for sexual reproduction ? Cloning in itself doesn't leave room from any gene frequencies to change.

Evolution per generation is certainly smaller, but over large time periods, they rapidly catch up. Gametic mutations in most eukaryotes is like 10^-4 to 10^-6 per base, depending on the locus. Most human locii are around 10^-6. Bacteria have a mutation rate of around 10^-8. Their generational mutation rate is two orders of magnitude smaller than us, but their generations occur... a lot faster. Many of order of magnitudes faster. Given optimal conditions, some bacteria reproduce every 10 minutes.

*does some math*

Let's say a bacterium divides every day (24 hours), and it takes an average of 20 years for a human to reproduce. Then in one generation of people, there will be 20*365 generations of bacteria. That is 8760 generations of bacteria; almost 4 orders of magnitude greater than people, which is 2 orders of magnitude greater in terms of mutation. Give optimum conditions (6 times per hour), that is 52,560 generations.

[Enmos]

Use of error prone DNApol in regions where diversity is useful (resistance against pathogens) would solve the problem. We use a sloppy polymerase in our B cells during B cell proliferation to compete with viral mutations.



Evolution per generation is certainly smaller, but over large time periods, they rapidly catch up. Gametic mutations in most eukaryotes is like 10^-4 to 10^-6 per base, depending on the locus. Most human locii are around 10^-6. Bacteria have a mutation rate of around 10^-8. Their generational mutation rate is two orders of magnitude smaller than us, but their generations occur... a lot faster. Many of order of magnitudes faster. Given optimal conditions, some bacteria reproduce every 10 minutes.

*does some math*

Let's say a bacterium divides every day (24 hours), and it takes an average of 20 years for a human to reproduce. Then in one generation of people, there will be 20*365 generations of bacteria. That is 8760 generations of bacteria; almost 4 orders of magnitude greater than people, which is 2 orders of magnitude greater in terms of mutation. Give optimum conditions (6 times per hour), that is 52,560 generations.

Hmm I can only agree with this.
But even bacteria retain the ability for sexual reproduction. So there must still be a distinct advantage to it, despite their rapid generation cycles.
It seems that doing away with sexual reproduction altogether is really a quirk, something disadvantageous that they managed to survive somehow.

[Roman]

Hmm I can only agree with this.
But even bacteria retain the ability for sexual reproduction. So there must still be a distinct advantage to it, despite their rapid generation cycles.
It seems that doing away with sexual reproduction altogether is really a quirk, something disadvantageous that they managed to survive somehow.

I'm not sure if bacterial competence or conjugation counts as sexual reproduction, though, as it has different implications for fitness and risk. Big sloppy genomes seems to be unique to the eukaryotes.

[w1z4rd]

Lesbian ants? wicked!

[Enmos]

I'm not sure if bacterial competence or conjugation counts as sexual reproduction, though, as it has different implications for fitness and risk. Big sloppy genomes seems to be unique to the eukaryotes.

In conjugation bacteria exchange their genetic material, so I would certainly count that as sexual reproduction.

[stereologist]

Whiptail lizards of the American Southwest are all female.