Even though there are only distaff Amazon molly fish , they ca n’t actually go without male person .
It turns out that even though they multiply asexually , the females first need to mate with males from closely related species of molly . The Amazon molly ( Poecilia Taiwan ) mates with the males from one of four different species , stealing their spermto trigger off their eggs before destroying the sperm cell so that it does n’t contribute to their genetics , a unconscious process have sex as gynogenesis .
We all know by now that much of what we got learn at school was not necessarily improper , just simplified . Nowhere is this more manifest than when it comes to what it means to be a specie . biological science is messy , and after hundreds of millions of years of bushed end , top , and trough , fairly much anything that could have develop has . And that has given rise to some creature that seem to defy what we thought we knew .
“ allot to make theory , this species should no longer exist . It should have long become extinct during the course of evolution,”explainedManfred Schartl , Colorado - writer of the paper publish inNature Ecology & Evolution . And yet here the Amazon molly is .
There are a numeral of reasons why the majority of animals – well , vertebrates at least – procreate sexually . The first is related to a species ' ability to adjust to changing environment . If all members of a population are dead ringer of a individual founding individual , then there is very little transmitted variation .
These little differences between one fauna and the next are the bread and butter of phylogenesis , and it means that if the environment was to change at least some would be able to last . This is less potential to happen if they are all clones .
The second make out down to the genetic code in their cell . All DNA will mutate at some spot as it is take , simulate , and replicated again and again and again . Most of these mutation are beguile by the inherent checking system , but once in a while a harmful one will mistake through .
Because during sexual breeding half the DNA comes from each parent , these mutation can be kept in check , with many being eliminated . In clones , this can not come about and these variation work up up over time .
Despite give in all likelihood split from its closest ascendant some 100,000 years ago , the Amazon molly has few major genetic damage . After sifting through its genome , researchers were surprised to see that the Pisces were able-bodied to maintain a amazingly gamy level of genetic variability . They observe that the genes responsible for the resistant organisation were particularly variable , which could hint at why the coinage is capable to survive asexually , and not give in to disease as many clones do .
