"each sex can enter fertile pairings with 22,960 others" Imagine its Tinder profile :)
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30625506.
Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in Japanese river (2021)
51–60 of 62 posts
Re: Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in Japanese river (2021)
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there any possibility that humans could be similar given that not every couple can have children naturally?
How often is the inability to have children naturally dependent on direct compatibility, rather than the ability of one or both partners to have children at all, regardless of partner?
This is an interesting idea because it seems like it could be true and we've just never noticed. I'm not sure how you'd go about designing a study but I guess it would be easy to find volunteers.
Re: Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in Japanese river (2021)
#53"each sex can enter fertile pairings with 22,960 others" Imagine its Tinder profile :)
Now imagine the list of pronouns they'd need to choose to create a Tinder profile...
Re: Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in Japanese river (2021)
#54Schizophyllum commune, known as the splitgill mushroom, has over 23,000 sexes. Two individuals are sexually compatible based on genes at two sites in their genome. If a pair has matching genes at either location, the pair is not sexually compatible.
Imagine the number of pronouns...
Re: Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in Japanese river (2021)
#55Schizophyllum commune, known as the splitgill mushroom, has over 23,000 sexes. Two individuals are sexually compatible based on genes at two sites in their genome. If a pair has matching genes at either location, the pair is not sexually compatible.
That brings up the question of what one means by "sex". As I understand it, sex is primarily about the kinds of gametes one produces - either large gametes (female) or small gametes (male). The genetic implementation of that is in some sense a secondary detail, since it varies between organisms. Reptiles, for instance, only have XX chromosomes and sex is determined by environment (or something like that).
I would expect that in this case the mushroom still only has two types of gametes, and hence only two sexes. There's just an added bit of complexity determining whether a particular pair of gametes can produce a new organism.
Re: Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in Japanese river (2021)
#56Schizophyllum commune, known as the splitgill mushroom, has over 23,000 sexes. Two individuals are sexually compatible based on genes at two sites in their genome. If a pair has matching genes at either location, the pair is not sexually compatible.
That brings up the question of what one means by "sex". As I understand it, sex is primarily about the kinds of gametes one produces - either large gametes (female) or small gametes (male). The genetic implementation of that is in some sense a secondary detail, since it varies between organisms. Reptiles, for instance, only have XX chromosomes and sex is determined by environment (or something like that). I would exp…
No, they're isogamous and have no sexes. They do have mating types.
Re: Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in Japanese river (2021)
#57Schizophyllum commune, known as the splitgill mushroom, has over 23,000 sexes. Two individuals are sexually compatible based on genes at two sites in their genome. If a pair has matching genes at either location, the pair is not sexually compatible.
These are not sexes but mating types. Schizophyllum is isogamous and has no sexes. An organism's sex is defined by anisogamy.
Re: Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in Japanese river (2021)
#58This article does not describe a species with three sexes. It describes a species with two sexes that can co-exist (or not) in the same individual organism.
It's somewhat unique because of the "(or not)" — most anisogamous species have either two phenotypes that produce one and only one of the gametes, or a single phenotype that produces both (like many flowering plants).
Still only two sexes, though—just more than two phenotypes.
Re: Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in Japanese river (2021)
#59So those aren't a third sex, it's individuals with both male and female reproductive cells.
But they're calling it a third sex because it's due to "normal expression of the species' genes", not because of hermaphroditism.
It is a third (or fourth) phenotype, not a third sex. The abstract of the source article is careful to spell this out; the clickbait site introduced the error.
"Three sex phenotypes in a haploid algal species give insights into the evolutionary transition to a self‐compatible mating system." -- i.e. how might self-pollinating plants have developed?
Re: Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in Japanese river (2021)
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
How often is the inability to have children naturally dependent on direct compatibility, rather than the ability of one or both partners to have children at all, regardless of partner?
This is an interesting idea because it seems like it could be true and we've just never noticed. I'm not sure how you'd go about designing a study but I guess it would be easy to find volunteers.
> but I guess it would be easy to find volunteers.
I don't know, in my experience people are sure picky about procreating with random strangers (and the ethical concerns regarding the output of the study are... significant).
From people I've known undergoing fertility treatments (and from my own limited research), the issue is frequently traceable to a specific cause in one or both partners (although it appears to be unexplained in about 20% of couples who seek treatment, which would be a small subset of the general population).