Genetically engineered female flies, tired of waiting for a male, give up and opt for virgin birth.
Notably, offspring resulting from virgin birth are not exact clones of their mother but share close genetic similarities and are consistently female.
“We’re the first to show that you can engineer virgin births to happen in an animal – it was very exciting to see a virgin fly produce an embryo able to develop to adulthood, and then repeat the process,” said first author Dr Alexis Sperling, a researcher at the University of Cambridge in a“In our genetically manipulated flies, the females waited to find a male for half their lives - about 40 days - but then gave up and proceeded to have a virgin birth," she added.
This ability for virgin birth can be a survival strategy for species. In specific circumstances, a generation of virgin births can ensure the continuation of a species when sexual reproduction is not immediately feasible.Drosophila mercatorum. One strain relied on males for reproduction, while the other was exclusively capable of virgin birth., the researchers successfully altered the corresponding genes in the model fruit fly,
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