That’s because, the researchers write, the males are formed from a sperm and egg that never fuse together. Males also had genetic material from both parents-the difference, however, was that each cell contained only genetic material from just one parent. They found that cells in the bodies of female worker ants were identical and contained chromosomes from both the mother and father. To find out more about the insect’s unusual genetics, Darras and his colleagues collected more than 600 yellow crazy ants from East and Southeast Asia and extracted DNA from their cells. Yet, “it didn’t make any sense that all males in this species would be diploid,” because diploid male ants are usually sterile, Darras tells Science News. Females are born from fertilized eggs, and their cells contain a set of chromosomes from each parent-also called diploidy.īut previous research found that yellow crazy ants didn’t seem to follow these trends-males appeared to have two different copies of genes, just like the females. In wasps, bees and ants, however, males generally are born from unfertilized eggs and therefore contain only genetic information from their mother. The zygote then divides, eventually forming an organism with mostly the same genetic material throughout its body. Most animals, including humans, form when a sperm fuses with an egg, creating a cell called a zygote that contains DNA from both parents. “This is by far the most bizarre system I’ve ever worked with.” “It’s exciting to be at the frontier of knowledge,” Hugo Darras, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Mainz in Germany who led the research, tells the Washington Post’s Dino Grandoni. The ants are the first known species for which chimerism is required to create fertile males, Science News’ McKenzie Prillaman reports. This unusual trait may have helped the insects become one of the world’s most successful invasive species. In a similar way, researchers suggest that different body parts in these male ants can have different sets of genetic material. The ants display a genetic condition called chimerism, named for the mythical chimera that has body parts from various creatures. As a safeguard, if too many human cells creep into the rat’s brains, the experiment will be stopped.Most male yellow crazy ants have two distinct sets of DNA in their bodies, a new study published last week in Sciencefinds. Pending approval, a Japanese stem cell scientist, Hiromitsu Nakauchi, plans to insert human stem cells into mice or rats in an attempt to grow a human pancreas in the animal. In March, Japan loosened its guidelines, lifting a two-week limit on the growth of human-animal chimeras and allowing the transplantation of chimeric embryos or hybrids into animals, but not humans. The team found out that when the cancer-causing virus loses a protein, called LANA, it also loses its ability to cause cancer. In 2017, Portuguese researchers created a chimera virus, a mouse virus with a human viral gene, which enables them to investigate new ways to treat cancer caused by human herpes virus infection. Virus chimeraĬhimeras can help to fight diseases. This explains a large section of darker skin on her torso – it comes from her sister’s DNA. Most recently, American singer Taylor Muhl discovered she was carrying genetic material from her fraternal twin sister, whose egg had fused with hers in their mother’s womb. There have been a number of documented human cases. Photograph: NBC/Getty ImagesĬhimeras also exist in the natural world. American singer Taylor Muhl, who is a human chimera.
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