Af meyfæðingum

Það er ekki á hverjum degi sem ég les um meyfæðingar, ég get ekki talist mikill bíblíurýnari, en um slíkt las ég þó í dag á vefsíðu The Times.  Virtir vísindamenn hafa staðfest að móðirin sé "óspjölluð" og standi ein að afkvæminu.  Það er þó ekki í landinu helga sem meyfæðingin á sér stað heldur í dýragarði í London.

Eða eins og segir í frétt The Times:

"Her status as a virgin mother-to-be has been confirmed by genetic fingerprinting of three eggs that collapsed. Though they are not clones, all their DNA came from Flora."

En Flora er reyndar Komado dreki, eðlutegund sem nú hefur komið í ljós að kveneðlurnar geta fjölgað sér án þess að karleðlurnar þurfi að koma þar nærri.  Líklega getur "kvenfrelsið" ekki orðið meira en þetta.

Og meira úr fréttinni:

"Kevin Buley, the curator of lower vertebrates and invertebrates at Chester Zoo, said: “Although other lizard species are known to self-fertilise, this is the first time this has ever been reported in Komodo dragons. Essentially what we have here is an immaculate conception.” "

"In humans, females have two X chromosomes and males one X and one Y chromosome. Komodo dragons and other species of the Varanus genus have W and Z chromosomes instead, and dissimilar chromosomes always produce a female.

When parthenogenesis takes place, the egg originally carries just one chromosome, either W or Z, which is duplicated. This means that all offspring are male, and able then to breed with their mothers.

“This discovery has very important implications for understanding how reptiles are potentially able to colonise new areas,” Dr Buley said. “Theoretically, a female Komodo dragon in the wild could swim to a new island and then establish an entirely new population of dragons.” "

Fréttina í heild má finna hér.