Re: Article: Evolutionary biology: Males from Mars



Perplexed in Peoria wrote:
> "Robert Karl Stonjek" <rstonjek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:da243r$e4m$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Nature 435, 1167-1168 (30 June 2005) | doi: 10.1038/4351167a
> >
> > Evolutionary biology: Males from Mars
> > David Queller
> >
> > In an ant species - or is it two species? - females are produced only by
> > females and males only by males. Explanations of this revelation have to
> > invoke some decidedly offbeat patterns of natural selection.
> >
> > ... There are species where males and
> > females are different enough to have fooled real earthly naturalists. But no
> > population geneticist would be misled - males and females mix their genes in
> > their progeny, and as a result male and female genes comprise a common,
> > well-mixed pool. A fascinating exception to this rule is described by
> > Fournier et al. "Clonal reproduction by males and females in the little fire
> > ant". Males and females each reproduce clonally and, like independent
> > species, follow separate evolutionary branches.
>
> Fascinating. Thx once again RKS. I would point out though that if ALL
> reproduction is clonal, then each individual of either sex acts like
> an independent species and hence follows a separate evolutionary branch.
> I don't see any consistent logic by which the species count comes out
> to exactly two.
>
> I wonder whether there isn't some sexual reproduction in the little fire ant,
> occurring under special circumstances, that the researchers just haven't
> noticed yet.

Yes, fascinating! I only have had a quick look so far but they inferred
the breeding system using microsatellites. It seems that males and
females always have distinct genotypes and that, apparently, there's no
admixture. Even more screwy is that workers (females) are formed by
sexual reproduction, but they are of course sterile. Still, genetic
variation thus exist in the workers hehe.

> A biologist from Mars, studying H.sap., but taking the
> unit of individuality to be the cell, might well notice that there are
> two distinct karyotypes in H. sap., both of which reproduce clonally.
> It might take some time before the Martians hit upon the right
> experimental conditions to induce non-clonal reproduction.


.

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