A Bizarre Genetic Parasite
Another insect, a scale insect, has an even more bizarre genetic parasite. When its eggs are fertilized. sometimes more than one sperm penetrates the egg. If this happens, one of the sperm fuses with the egg's nucleus in the normal way; the spare sperm hang around and begin dividing as the egg divides. When the creature matures, the parasitic sperm cells eat out its gonads and replace them with themselves. So the insect produces sperm or eggs that are barely related to itself, an astonishing piece of genetic cuckoldry.
Notes:
Something strange happens when two scale insect sperm fertilize an egg.
Folksonomies: evolution science wonder sex
Taxonomies:
/family and parenting/motherhood/pregnancy (0.449893)
/health and fitness/disease (0.440529)
/society/sex (0.227078)
Keywords:
bizarre genetic parasite (0.966513 (negative:-0.741271)), scale insect sperm (0.846886 (negative:-0.804215)), parasitic sperm cells (0.679606 (negative:-0.493538)), sperm fuses (0.539631 (neutral:0.000000)), spare sperm (0.518104 (neutral:0.000000)), egg divides (0.410686 (neutral:0.000000)), astonishing piece (0.330049 (positive:0.408089)), normal way (0.317356 (neutral:0.000000)), genetic cuckoldry (0.279438 (positive:0.408089)), eggs (0.223198 (negative:-0.423261))
Entities:
sperm cells:FieldTerminology (0.976505 (negative:-0.493538))
Concepts:
Spermatozoon (0.982457): dbpedia | freebase
Sperm (0.795391): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Fertility (0.781681): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Bacteria (0.762220): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Gene (0.706351): dbpedia | freebase
Gamete (0.659123): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Egg (0.646279): dbpedia
Fertilisation (0.623370): dbpedia | freebase
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature