In a recent nature article the paradox of the asexual Amazon Molly, a species of fish that is most
commonly found in the Gulf of Mexico, is discussed. The Amazon Molly is unique
because it is one of few vertebras that partake in asexual reproduction, more
specifically it reproduces through what is known as gynogenesis which means
females need a male to mate, however the genetic material from the male is not
incorporated in the diploid egg cells provided by the mother, which leads to
the subsequent cloning of the mother. Additionally, this species does not
conform to the Muller’s Ratchet hypothesis which argues that meiosis is needed
in order to purge any bad mutations that could lead to genomic decay, thus
making the clonal vertebrae population evolutionarily short lived and unable to survive after a certain amount of generations. However, the
Amazon Molly exceeds this threshold argued by Muller’s Ratchet in that is has been phylogentically shown to
be at least 100,000 years old and have had about 500,000 generations. So, why
has this species survived this long and why aren’t there more vertebrae species
that can reproduce asexually? Well, the answer is in the genes! After examining
the genome, it has been determined that the rarity of this paradox is not due
to it’s inferiority to sexual species, but because the genomic variations which
lead to successful survivorship and reproduction of the species is very
specific!
You can find the recently published article in nature here
-Sam Lubrano
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