Eighty million years without sex

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7039478.stm

How long would last?

AlmightyCushion

Here's the article.

The mystery of how an animal has survived for 80 million years without sex has been solved by UK scientists.

A Cambridge team says the creature owes its existence to a genetic quirk that offers some recompense for its prolonged celibacy.

Many asexual organisms have died out because they cannot adapt to changes in the natural world.

But an evolutionary trick allows this pond-dweller to survive when conditions change, researchers report in Science.

The animal is a tiny invertebrate known as a bdelloid rotifer. It lives in freshwater pools. If deprived of water, it survives in a desiccated state until water becomes available again.

The secret to this novel survival mechanism lies in a twist of asexual reproduction, whereby the animal is able to make two separate proteins from two different copies of a key gene.

Prolonged celibacy

Dr Alan Tunnacliffe, from the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge, who led the research, said his team had been able to show for the first time that gene copies in asexual animals can have different functions.

"It's particularly exciting that we've found different, but complementary, functions in genes which help bdelloid rotifers survive desiccation," he explained.

"Evolution of gene function in this way can't happen in sexual organisms, which means there could be some benefit to millions of years without sex after all."

The researchers discovered that two copies of a particular gene, known as LEA, in the asexual pond-dweller are different - giving rise to proteins with separate functions that protect the animal during dehydration.

One copy stops other essential protein molecules from clumping together as the animal dries out, while the second copy helps to maintain the fragile membranes that surround the creature's cells.

Genetic diversity

Humans and most other types of organism reproduce sexually. The union of sperm and eggs results in two copies (or a pair) of genetic instructions within a cell, one copy inherited from each parent.

This produces two nearly identical copies of each gene in each cell, and therefore two nearly identical proteins.

The "re-shuffling" of genetic material over many generations allows sexual animals to adapt to changes in their natural environment.

In contrast, many asexual organisms have died out because their rigid genetic make-up means they are unable to adapt in this way.

The latest discovery explains why the bdelloids have likely escaped this fate with their mechanism for generating genetic diversity in the absence of sexual reproduction.

The study reported in Science magazine was conducted on a species of bdelloid rotifer known as Adineta ricciae.

Terry

Hmm. There's a few years left in me so.

Anto McC

Sometimes it's felt about that long.

AARRRGH

Deleted User wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7039478.stm

How long would last?

The EXACT OPPOSITE of YORE MA

/just to get it out of the way

Naos

Worst 'Yore Ma' joke in a while.

I do believe it's a bannable offense... Take him Terry, take him.

OP: What is your question exactly?

Terry

It has been dealt with.
Yay for the new infraction system.

Latchy

Sorry darling i'm to tired tonight zzzzzzzzzzzz (again)

Black Swan

The tale of the unrequieted sex creature.

Outer Bongolia

I could do that amount of time standing on my head. Time to jack off. I'll talk to you all later

eroo

sickened

doonothing

yore ma has got to be the most infuriating, pointless, and unfunny internet "joke" ever.

80million? now thats commitment.

Terry

Please read the updated charter.

slade_x

Deleted User wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7039478.stm

How long would last?

not sure what you mean by that question.. maybe you meant to put a you in there, if so i dont see how an asexual species can be comparable to a sexual reproductive species going with out sex for a period of time

posing that question would be similar to
Fish refraining from eating chocolate, how long could you go without consuming chocolate

abstinance isnt a choice for asexual species, its not even an option for them.

slade_x

slade_x wrote: »

not sure what you mean by that question.. maybe you meant to put a you in there, if so i dont see how an asexual species can be comparable to a sexual reproductive species going with out sex for a period of time

posing that question would be similar to
Fish refraining from eating chocolate, how long could you go without consuming chocolate

abstinance isnt a choice for asexual species, its not even an option for them.

Yes there should have been a "you" in there.

As for the original question, well it's a friday night pub after a few drinks type of a question.

Not to be taken seriously ar chor ar bith.