Well, I thought it was interesting — Actual virgin birth engineered.
Prompt: Fruit flies and virgin birth.
- Fruit flies, check. Virgin birth……less check?
My lovely wife sent me an article to read recently detailing a new breakthrough in the field of genetic engineering. Scientists were able to engineer females of the species Drosophila melanogaster (the common fruit fly) to be capable of self-fertilization and therefore being able to produce offspring without a male of the species. This required some hard work to identify which genes allowed a closely related fruit fly species to reproduce without males and then “switch on” those sleeping genes in the common fruit fly to reactivate this ability.
It should also be noted that engineering this ability in the common fruit fly was relatively easy compared to how difficult it would be in many other organisms; this is because the common fruit fly is a “model organism,” a species that we have chosen to study in great detail because, for one reason or another, they are excellent for building our understanding of specific biological processes. The fruit fly is the model organism that we have used in our study of genetics; you might be shocked at just how much of our genetic knowledge has been gained by experimenting with this one simple little creature. Our great familiarity with the fruit fly made it the best candidate for this project; it was far easier to identify the important genes in these flies than it would be for almost any other animal.
One exciting part of this process is that it did not involve adding any new genes to the fruit flies, simply changing whether or not those particular genes were “on” or “off.” Inactive or “sleeping” genes are not uncommon; one of my favorite examples is that humans, like many other mammals, actually have the genes needed to produce our own vitamin C (GULO) and thus do not need to get it from our food. Incidentally, this would also make us entirely immune to scurvy.
However, at some point in our evolution, the genes for making vitamin C were switched off permanently, perhaps because our ancestors consumed large amounts of vitamin C-rich fruits, so making your own wasn’t an advantage anymore, or perhaps the genes were shut down for a completely different reason.
Technically, through a similar process to that used in these fruit fly experiments, it should be possible to switch those genes back on in a human, and our body would go straight back to generating vitamin C. The one rather large caveat here is that since the GULO gene has been “off” in our species for so long, parts of it have started to disappear over time — reactivating the gene in modern humans would require a little more effort than I implied above; you would need to “repair” the GULO gene before you could turn it back on for us.
Another typical example would be lactase tolerance — mammals, including humans, drink milk when they are babies and so produce the enzyme “lactase” to digest the sugar found in milk, lactose. At some point, as we age, the gene is switched off, and we become lactose intolerant; we cannot digest the milk sugars, so our gut bacteria feast on it, causing gas pain and foul smells. Some of the human population, including myself, developed or inherited a mutation at some point that has prevented the lactase gene from being switched off; we can drink milk and consume various dairy products throughout our lives without ill effects. Every human has the genes necessary to be lactose tolerant, but if those genes are in an “off” state, you consume dairy at your own peril and the peril of anyone within smelling distance…
What about “the normal kind” of virgin birth
It is never a good idea to oversell and under-deliver, so we should take a moment to acknowledge that “virgin birth” is a relatively normal event in some species on our planet; the process is referred to as parthenogenesis.
As with many scientific words, this one is derived from Greek; Parthenos- is Greek for virgin, while -genesis means creation, meaning that parthenogenesis literally means virgin creation (of new life). Various species of plants, algae, and, yes, even animals are naturally capable of parthenogenesis. There are several species of fish, lizards, frogs, and others that are exclusively unisex — the entire species is female and requires no males.
Parthenogenesis, as a reproduction method, is a valuable survival adaptation that can help a species get through difficult times. Sexual reproduction takes two, obviously, and also tends to involve a lot more risk since it involves locating a mate and, in some species, trying to survive a sexual encounter with your mate — think black widow spiders and their penchant for sexual cannibalism.
There are a number of different ways to procreate and keep a species going. We tend to be most familiar with sexual reproduction on account of… reasons, but other methods can give a species a serious survival advantage in the right conditions.
Admittedly, none of this may seem particularly interesting or practical; what is the value of creating fruit flies that can reproduce even more easily? Is there anyone out there suffering from a shortage of fruit flies?
The purpose behind this research is, of course, not intended to help the common fruit fly become even more common; in fact, this research is categorized as “basic research” — research that is not directed at any particular goal beyond figuring out how something works because a scientist wanted to know.
I have talked a little about basic research before; as I mentioned then, it may look like this kind of research is unimportant or wasteful in the short term, but history is filled with instances in which “unimportant” discoveries have become central parts of our world and our everyday lives.
Knowledge inspires creativity, and basic science is in the business of producing new knowledge.
While we may not have any specific use for this new ability just yet, it still represents yet another step forward in our understanding of biology; we have, as a species, grasped and mastered yet another infinitesimally small piece of the grand puzzle that is our universe.
The possibility that this research may one day lead us to something amazing is also not to be discounted; history is filled with seemingly incidental or unimportant discoveries that have proved to be world-changing down the road.
My most commonly used example is that many people once wondered if there was any value to Maxwell’s equations; fast forward to today, where all wireless technology, from radio to satellite to Wi-Fi, is only possible because of this one little bit of math.
Anyways, I thought it was interesting.
The science lends itself to jokes about how we don’t need men anymore.
Unfortunately, I also have to assume it is only a matter of time before some hateful segment of the manosphere finds a way to twist this into evidence that the “feminazis” are out to destroy men.
We are nothing, if not predictable.
