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Virgin Birth (Parthenogenesis; Asexual Reproduction)

CygnusRex

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A festive news item:

Virgin birth
By Bob Beale
December 12, 2003




Is it the scratchy sand? Does the glare induce headaches? Is it the heat and the flies?

Whatever the reason, scientists have discovered many creatures living in Australia's harsh arid zone are giving males the flick and opting for all-female communities that reproduce by cloning themselves.

In a new research paper titled "Why is sex so unpopular in the Australian desert?", a Sydney University doctoral student, Michael Kearney, details a swag of bizarre reptiles, insects and even that classic tough outback tree the mulga as species that have given blokes the heave-ho.

How they reproduce - by parthenogenesis, or virgin birth - is one thing, but why they do it, and where, has researchers baffled.

Asexual reproduction - so rare that less than one species in 1000 practises it - tends to occur in extreme or fringe environments, such as high altitudes, high latitudes, deserts and places disturbed by fires and droughts.

Mr Kearney unearthed some discoveries by the distinguished geneticist Michael White, who died before he could publish his findings that two Australian insects - a wingless grasshopper and a stick insect - reproduce asexually. Both insects occur in the same region of Western Australia and feed on the same species of mulga trees and senna shrubs, plants that are now known to be prone to self-cloning.

"Your instinct tells you it can't be coincidental that so many lineages are all doing the same extraordinary thing here," says Rick Shine, the evolutionary biologist who is supervising Mr Kearney's research.

"Presumably there's some reason to kick boys out of the arid zone."

The latest example is a type of Menetia skink recently identified in southern central Australia. It is the first parthenogenetic species found anywhere in the world for 20 years.

The last one was another Australian lizard, Bynoe's gecko.

That gecko compounds the mystery because the asexual type is often found alongside others of the same species that reproduce sexually.

The trouble with males, Professor Shine points out, is that they cannot reproduce themselves independently, they consume scarce food and they perpetuate maleness in a population through sex.

Females invest heavily in creating eggs, whereas "males are just coming along as parasites and throwing their genes into the mix".

So if self-cloning is so much more efficient, why did 99.9 per cent of species choose sex?

A popular theory is the Red Queen hypothesis, named after the Lewis Carroll character who tells Alice that she must keep running simply to stay in the same place.

The big advantage of sex, that theory suggests, is that it creates genetic difference between individuals, driving evolutionary competition. Offspring differ slightly from their parents and from each other, with some better suited than others to adapt to new circumstances.

Bynoe's gecko may be living proof - the clones have a higher deformity rate, and where the asexual and sexual types are found together the clones suffer heavier infestations of parasitic mites.

Mr Kearney says he used that example to explain the Red Queen hypothesis to a bemused outback station owner.

"He replied, with a sardonic grin: 'So if we stop having sex we will end up with lots of little red mites all over our faces?' "
 
Has anyone here read the 3rd book in the Ender's Game trilogy? That's what I thought of when I read about the trees, insects, lizards all seeming to reproduce asexually - "Good Heavens, they're all one creature in different forms of metamorphosis."
The trouble with males, Professor Shine points out, is that they cannot reproduce themselves independently, they consume scarce food and they perpetuate maleness in a population through sex.

Females invest heavily in creating eggs, whereas "males are just coming along as parasites and throwing their genes into the mix".
This seems a little unfair. Males can also be good little workers, and they look so nice when dressed and groomed properly.

Seriously, though, the idea that sexual reproduction helps create a more diverse gene pool makes sense. I also wondered if there was some chemical in the asexually reproducing trees that was affecting the insects who ate the leaves, and the insects in turn were passing it on to the lizards who ate them. The article seems to imply that these species are all in the same area and are interdependent.
 
COULD A VIRGIN GIVE BIRTH?

Saturday, December 11, 2004
[email protected] 388-8412

cross history there have been many accounts of virgin births, of kings, gods, conquerors -- and a baby born more than 2,000 years ago in a manger.

Some scholars say these are all stories that lack much basis in reality.

Others say the Christmas narrative contained in the Bible at least has a strong factual foundation.

Whether fiction or not, scholars say, accounts of miraculous births are plentiful throughout history.

Linking the divine to the human in a dramatic way, for instance, is the story of Krishna, the Hindu god who was born to the virgin Devaki.

The Hopi Indians believe that Spider Woman -- who was created by the first man, Sokukanang -- formed twins out her own saliva and the earth. The twins were then sent into the world to keep it in order.

And then there is the story that many in the world will celebrate two weeks from today on Christmas -- that of Jesus Christ, the son of God, who Christian believers say came to die so that mankind could be saved from damnation.

"Virgin births are all over the place," said Kevin Wanner, assistant professor of comparative religion at Western Michigan University. "They are among the most widespread motifs in the history of the world's religions."

Wanner will speak about virgin births at 2 p.m. Thursday as part of the monthly Third Thursday Gathering discussion series at Friendship Village, 1400 N. Drake Road. His talk will be in the KIVA room.

Among the questions he'll address is why virgin births are so prevalent in religious and even secular accounts.

One reason, he says, is that a virgin birth underscores the otherworldliness of the person born.

"If you locate a god (or important personage) in a particular time, it helps to have a concrete connection to something higher -- not just a human source of wisdom," Wanner said.

Most of us believe it

A Newsweek magazine poll, released this week, reports 79 percent of Americans believe that, as the Bible says, Jesus Christ was born of Mary, a virgin, and did not have a human father.

Wanner says he won't speculate in his talk about the reliability of the biblical accounts of Christ's birth.

Nor, he said, will he try to "draw broader, universal themes" from the many virgin- and miraculous-birth stories that repeat themselves over and over again in the world's literature.

Wanner says he will, though, touch on what is contained in the New Testament stories about Christ's birth.

"I'll be talking about the basic Nativity narrative -- the one you see in the shop window -- and how it does and doesn't reflect the actual Gospel narratives," Wanner said.

There are only two accounts of it in the Bible, in Matthew and in Luke, he said, and they have almost nothing in common.

Luke gives the richer, fuller story that includes the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she has conceived a child who "will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High."

Luke also sets the scene of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem to take part in the census decreed by Caesar Augustus.

Matthew's account, Wanner said, is more bare-bones. Jesus is born, and the Magi come from the east.

Then, Wanner said, there are the other virgin-birth narratives.

Other traditions

Pagan heroes like Alexander the Great and Caesar Augustus and mythological figures such as Hercules and Prometheus are depicted in various texts as being born from a virgin, Wanner said.

Similar stories exist in Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Persian texts.

In China, legend has it that the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu was also born of a virgin.

"In certain traditions, he was in his mother's womb for more than 60 years and then came out as a wise sage," Wanner said.

Meanwhile, scholars say, many believe Buddha was born of the virgin Maya after a holy ghost descended upon her.

Miraculous births are also reported in the Old Testament: the aged Sarah bearing Isaac and the barren wife of Manoah giving birth to Samson.

Although the Dalai Lama is not necessarily born of a virgin, he is seen as the reincarnation of the Lama, who comes back over and over as an enlightened being.

"All of these figures are mediators between the divine and the human," Wanner said. "They aren't always virgin births, but there is some kind of miraculous, divine intervention."

A borrowed tale?

Some critics point to the plethora of virgin-birth stories in mythology and in other world religions as evidence that the event the world celebrates at Christmas is just a nice, feel-good tale.

They say that Christ was probably a real person but that he wasn't God born of a virgin.

Fox example, according to a Newsweek article published this week, theologian Robert J. Miller argues in his 2003 book, "Born Divine: Jesus and Other Sons of God," that the Nativity narratives in Luke and Matthew are largely fiction.

Miller says the biblical accounts are responses to the pagan stories about the virgin birth of their heroes and leaders.

Wanner says his talk next week "won't be an apologetic or try to debunk how much Christianity borrowed from pagan religions."

He will lay out the facts as he knows them and let others make up their minds.

Evidence confirms it

Paul Maier, a professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University, has no qualms about offering a scholarly opinion.

While he acknowledges that the motif of a powerful person springing from a virgin is widespread, only the story contained in the gospels of Luke and Matthew has the solid ring of truth, he says.

"If you read the many virgin-birth stories in context, you find a vast difference between Matthew and Luke and the others," he said.

Other stories of virgin birth are often put in the form of fable or myth.

"You have the weird intervention of Zeus crawling into bed and turning into a snake that helped spawn Alexander the Great," Maier said.

Human beings, he said, are constantly looking for a bridge to God. So it makes sense that there are so many stories about miraculous births.

On the other hand, he said, the biblical narratives present special qualities that convince him of their historical accuracy.

In his book "In the Fullness of Time," Maier writes, "Of all the religions in the world, none have more thoroughly based themselves on history than Judaism and Christianity."

The narratives of the first Christmas are based in a real place at a real time, he points out.

There is even some hard evidence that a census had been decreed at the time Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem. Critics have claimed that Rome never required its citizens to return to their original homes to be counted. But the discovery of a Roman census document dating back to 119 A.D., shows that Rome did require such censuses, Maier said.

Another thing convinces him, Maier said.

Luke and Matthew may actually have interviewed Mary later in the first century about her life.

"According to earliest church tradition, it was Mary herself who told Matthew and Luke all about the Nativity, and it was they who wrote it down," Maier said. "And that is how we got the story of the first Christmas."


-----------------------
© 2004 Kalamazoo. Used with permission

Source
 
Unfortunately it's a reptile. Maybe David Ike was right all along! :shock:

'Virgin births' for giant lizards

Scientists report of two cases where female Komodo dragons have produced offspring without male contact.

Tests revealed their eggs had developed without being fertilised by sperm - a process called parthenogenesis, the team wrote in the journal Nature.

One of the reptiles, Flora, a resident of Chester Zoo in the UK, is awaiting her clutch of eight eggs to hatch, with a due-date estimated around Christmas.

Kevin Buley, a curator at Chester Zoo and a co-author on the paper, said: "Flora laid her eggs at the end of May and, given the incubation period of between seven and nine months, it is possible they could hatch around Christmas - which for a 'virgin birth' would finish the story off nicely.

"We will be on the look-out for shepherds, wise men and an unusually bright star in the sky over Chester Zoo."

Flora, who has never been kept with a male Komodo dragon, produced 11 eggs earlier this year. Three died off, providing the material needed for genetic tests.

Flora the Komodo dragon (Chester Zoo archives)
Flora had never been kept with male Komodo dragons

These revealed the offspring were not exact genetic copies (clones) of their mother, but their genetic make-up was derived just from her.

The team concluded they were a result of asexual reproduction, and are waiting for the remaining eight eggs to hatch.

Abnormal phenomenon?

Another captive-bred female called Sungai, at London Zoo in the UK, produced four offspring earlier this year - more than two years after her last contact with a male, the scientists reported in the same paper.

Again, genetic tests revealed the Komodo dragon babies, which are healthy and growing normally, were produced through parthenogenesis.

Sungai was also able to reproduce sexually, producing another baby offspring after mating with a male called Raja.

Richard Gibson, an author on the paper and a curator at the Zoological Society of London, said: "Parthenogenesis has been described before in about 70 species of vertebrates, but it has always been regarded to be a very unusual, perhaps abnormal phenomenon."

It has been shown in some snakes, fish, a monitor lizard and even a turkey, he said.

"But we have seen this in two separate, unrelated female Komodo dragons within a year, so this suggests maybe parthenogenesis is much more widespread and common than previously considered."

He added: "Because these animals were in captivity for years without male access, they reproduced parthenogenetically.

Komodo dragon born to Sungai (Daniel Sprawson/ZSL)
Sungai's offspring are doing well

"But the ability to reproduce parthenogenetically is obviously an ancestral capability."

He said the lizards could make use of the ability to reproduce asexually when, for example, a lone female was washed up alone on an island with no males to breed with.

Because of the genetics of this process, he added, her children would always be male.

This is because Komodo dragons have W and Z chromosomes - females have one W and one Z, males have two Ws.

The egg from the female carries one chromosome, either a W or Z, and when parthenogenesis takes place, either the W or Z is duplicated.

This leads to eggs which are WW and ZZ. ZZ eggs are not viable, but WW eggs are, and lead to male baby Komodo dragons.

And like Sungai, she would be able to switch back to sexual reproduction, so she could breed to establish a new colony.

There are fewer than 4,000 Komodo dragons in the wild, and they are found in three islands in Indonesia: Komodo, Flores and Rinca.

Adult males can grow up to 3m (10ft) in length and weigh up to 90kg (200lb) - making them the biggest lizards on the planet.

The researchers said that, to ensure genetic diversity of Komodo dragons kept in captivity, zoos should perhaps keep males and females together to avoid asexual reproduction.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6196225.stm
 
I can't remember the source, but I have read about virgin births in mammals.
 
Not too much off-topic, I hope, but I'd just like to say how sick I am of the media muppets referring to virgin birth/parthenogenesis as "immaculate conception" under the impression that a conception without an apparent father is somehow "immaculate" and confusing this with the alleged virgin birth of Jesus.
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of MARY, Christ's mother, as a human conception but free of the burden of original sin the rest of humanity is said to carry in Catholic doctrine. It was revealed to the Church by Bernadette Soubirous (later St Bernadette of Lourdes) as part of a series of visions of the Virgin Mary and conversations with her. The Immaculate Conception was not made Catholic doctrine until the twentieth century.
Jesus' conception was not "immaculate" but it was between a (sinless) human woman and God. Jesus is both fully human AND fully divine in Christian doctrine.
 
Ehm, ah, maybe this has to do more with I dunno, ignorace, but here goes anyway...

Nearly 1% of women believe they have had a 'virgin birth'


Nearly one per cent of young women who have become pregnant claim to have done so as virgins, an American study has found.

Researchers interviewed 7,870 women aged 15 to 28 and found that more than 0.5 per cent of them who said they were virgins had also given birth - without the help of IVF.

The women were part of the long-running National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, according to a report in the Christmas edition of the BMJ.

The girls were 12 to 18 years old when they entered the study in the 1994-95 school year and were interviewed periodically about their health and behaviour over 14 years.

Based on interviews with the women, 45 of the 5,340 pregnancies in this group through the years occurred in women who reported that they conceived without a man being involved.

Lead researcher Amy Herring and her colleagues devised an experiment where subjects were able to reply candidly to computer-generated self-interviews.

While the women weren't specifically asked about virgin births, the researchers used their replies to make a rough timeline of when the women started having sex and when they became pregnant.

The average age at which 'virgins' reportedly gave birth was 19.3 years.

Of the 45 women who became pregnant despite claiming to be virgins, 31 per cent said they had signed chastity pledges.

Only 15 per cent of non-virgins said they had signed a the pledge - promising to not have sex before marriage.

The 45 self-described virgins who reported having become pregnant (and the 36 who gave birth) were also more likely than non-virgins to say their parents never or rarely talked to them about sex and birth control.

About 28 per cent of the 'virgin' mothers' parents (who were also interviewed) indicated they didn't have enough knowledge to discuss sex and contraception with their daughters, and were less likely to know how to use condoms.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... z2nt8hAPkF
 
It would be illuminating to know what proportion of the virgin offspring were female?
 
Maybe there are one or two genuine cases? After all, some species of animals can do this.
 
I wouldn't be too surprised if mammalian parthenogenesis was possible under certain circumstances.
I think lab experiments with gene deletion have resulted in this so surely natural variance has or could do the same. No one is going to believe the poor girl though.
 
AMPHIARAUS said:
I wouldn't be too surprised if mammalian parthenogenesis was possible under certain circumstances.
...
Circumstances like ignorance and bigotry, for example.
 
OneWingedBird said:
It would be illuminating to know what proportion of the virgin offspring were female?

The article also states:

The researchers found that although the mothers in question were more likely to have boys than girls, and to be pregnant during the weeks leading up to Christmas, neither similarity to the Virgin Mary was statistically significant.
 
Charlie, a female Komodo dragon at the Chattanooga Zoo in Tennessee, has proved to be the ultimate independent lady after successfully giving birth to three hatchlings without a male partner.
Even though Charlie and a potential mate named Kadal were placed together in hopes of breeding, the first-time mother produced the three brothers, named Onyx, Jasper and Flint, on her own through a phenomenon called parthenogenesis. It's extremely rare among vertebrates: Only 70 backboned species can do it, which is about 0.1% of all vertebrates,
according to Scientific American.


https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/09/us/komodo-dragons-parthenogenesis-scn-trnd/index.html
 
Newly published research has established that a single gene determines Cape honey bees' ability to reproduce asexually.
Virgin birth has scientists buzzing
Researchers discover a gene in honey bees that causes virgin birth

In a study published today in Current Biology, researchers from University of Sydney have identified the single gene that determines how Cape honey bees reproduce without ever having sex. One gene, GB45239 on chromosome 11, is responsible for virgin births.

"It is extremely exciting," said Professor Benjamin Oldroyd in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences. "Scientists have been looking for this gene for the last 30 years. Now that we know it's on chromosome 11, we have solved a mystery."

Behavioural geneticist Professor Oldroyd said: "Sex is a weird way to reproduce and yet it is the most common form of reproduction for animals and plants on the planet. It's a major biological mystery why there is so much sex going on and it doesn't make evolutionary sense. Asexuality is a much more efficient way to reproduce, and every now and then we see a species revert to it."

In the Cape honey bee, found in South Africa, the gene has allowed worker bees to lay eggs that only produce females instead of the normal males that other honey bees do. "Males are mostly useless," Professor Oldroyd said. "But Cape workers can become genetically reincarnated as a female queen and that prospect changes everything."

But it also causes problems. "Instead of being a cooperative society, Cape honey bee colonies are riven with conflict because any worker can be genetically reincarnated as the next queen. When a colony loses its queen the workers fight and compete to be the mother of the next queen," Professor Oldroyd said.

The ability to produce daughters asexually, known as "thelytokous parthenogenesis," is restricted to a single subspecies inhabiting the Cape region of South Africa, the Cape honey bee or Apis mellifera capensis. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200507131327.htm

PUBLISHED ARTICLE:
Yagound et al., A Single Gene Causes Thelytokous Parthenogenesis, the Defining Feature of the Cape Honeybee Apis mellifera capensis, Current Biology (2020)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.04.033

The full article is accessible as a PDF file at:
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(20)30547-9.pdf
 
Just in case, a friendly reminder that parthenogenesis in humans would not be able to produce male offspring, because women do not have the genes that make human males. There is something called Klinefelter syndrome, but such people have a male phenotype.

Miracles can do anything; but without one, males can not come from a virgin birth naturally. Incidentally, this makes the David's lineage thing moot; the male genes are inherited from the father, and these were absent on Mary. A human born from parthenogenesis would be a female.
 
Just in case, a friendly reminder that parthenogenesis in humans would not be able to produce male offspring, because women do not have the genes that make human males. There is something called Klinefelter syndrome, but such people have a male phenotype.

Miracles can do anything; but without one, males can not come from a virgin birth naturally. Incidentally, this makes the David's lineage thing moot; the male genes are inherited from the father, and these were absent on Mary. A human born from parthenogenesis would be a female.
Jesus was a woman! The truth is now revealed!
 
An Italian aquarium reports what seems to be a parthenogenic birth of a smooth-hound shark. Parthenogenesis is documented in a few other species of sharks, but not this one
Baby shark born in aquarium tank where only females are kept

Officials at an Italian aquarium said a baby smooth-hound shark was born in a tank in which only females are kept in what might be the first documented case of asexual reproduction for the species.

The Acquario Cala Gonone in Sardinia said the baby, dubbed Isperia, was born in a tank in which only two female smooth-hound sharks have lived for the past decade. ...

The aquarium said officials suspect the shark was born via a process known as parthenogenesis, which involves a polar cell, which contains a duplicate of an egg's DNA, fertilizing the egg in the absence of sperm.

Marine biologists at the aquarium said they have sent samples for testing to confirm whether Isperia is a genetic clone of her mother.

Parthenogenesis has previously been observed in three species of shark: the bonnethead, the blacktip shark and the zebra shark. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/0...ooth-hound-shark-born-no-males/4771629492424/
 
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