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Immaculate Conception In a Boa Constrictor

Posted by samzenpus on from the gold-frankincense-and-mice dept.

crudmonkey writes "Researchers have discovered a biological shocker: female boa constrictors are capable of giving birth asexually. But the surprise doesn't end there. The study in Biology Letters found that boa babies produced through this asexual reproduction — also known as parthenogenesis — sport a chromosomal oddity that researchers thought was impossible in reptiles. While researchers admit that the female in the study may have been a genetic freak, they say the findings should press researchers to re-think reptile reproduction. Virgin birth among reptiles, especially primitive ones like boas, they argue may be far commoner than ever expected."

4 of 478 comments (clear)

  1. Immaculate Conception doesn't mean virgin birth by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Informative

    A lot of people make the mistake of equating "Immaculate Conception" to the virgin birth of Jesus. Actually, it refers to the birth of Mary (mother of Jesus) being born without Original Sin. What the author is referring to is the Annunciation, which is the virgin conception of Jesus within Mary.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_Conception

  2. Immaculate Conception? by Imnimo · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is not what Immaculate Conception means. The Immaculate Conception is the conception of Mary, not of Jesus, with the idea being that Mary is conceived without original sin so as to make her a proper vessel for Jesus. Then again, since snakes don't have original sin, maybe every snake conception is immaculate.

  3. And the chromosomal oddity is... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Informative

    Two WW chromosomes. In mammals, we have X and Y chromosomes to determine sex—but in reptiles, fish, and of course birds, the norm for a female is ZW, and the norm for a male is ZZ. This brought to you by Tilde R: Helping Those Who Hate RTFA.

    --
    Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
  4. Chromosomal Oddity by cappp · · Score: 4, Informative
    The summary skips out on the interesting detail there

    The mother in question gave birth to not one, but two snake litters of all-female snakes with WW-chromosomes. Male snake cells have two Z chromosomes, while female snakes have a Z and a W. This is the first time a reptile has been seen with two W chromosomes, something thought peculiar to fish and amphibians. The snakes' litters also retained the mother's rare genetic coloring

    Also direct links to the study are here and here(pdf). The paper is "Evidence for viable, non-clonal but fatherless Boa constrictors" by Warren Booth, Daniel H. Johnson, Sharon Moore, Coby Schal, and Edward L. Vargo.