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Crazy ants’ strange genomes are a biological first

nature.com

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Re: Crazy ants’ strange genomes are a biological first

#11

Post by ovi256 »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #7
DoreenMichele wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While true, as a mother and environmental studies major, that wasn't the most important detail to me. A. Human women become chimeras when they carry a fetus. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8155153 B. It's the reason for the headline -- their weird chimeric males -- but it seems more important to me that it facilitates invasive behavior by allowing a single ant to start a new colony. YMMV, of course, and probabl…

Don't lots of species store sperm? I see nothing too remarkable about a single individual being able to start a colony unless no species do store sperm.

That species from other families do it does not make it less remarkable that these are the only ant species to do it.

Re: Crazy ants’ strange genomes are a biological first

#12

Post by Kaijo »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #2

TLDR: Most male ants in most ant species are not diploid. Yellow crazy ants are an invasive species wreaking havoc in Southeast Asia and Oceania and their diploid males are apparently part of why. It allows a single queen ant to start a new colony.

Yes, although the surprising thing here relates more to chimaerism than diploidy alone. And that should be "invade" and not "evade" in the crucial sentence in the closing paragraph: "crazy yellow ants’ chimaerism could contribute to the species ability to evade ecosystems".

The flexiblity afforded by chimaerism in this system reminds me a bit of the dikaryotic condition in many species of mushrooms (higher basidiomycete fungi). In this case the parental nuclei also do not fuse on fertilization (plasmogamy), but are maintained separately as a stable arrangement at a subcellular level. So you don't get individual cells having either one parental genome or the other, every cell is binucleate, having two parental genomes in two separate nuclei.

Re: Crazy ants’ strange genomes are a biological first

#14

Post by EamonnMR »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #4
DoreenMichele wrote: post #2

TLDR: Most male ants in most ant species are not diploid. Yellow crazy ants are an invasive species wreaking havoc in Southeast Asia and Oceania and their diploid males are apparently part of why. It allows a single queen ant to start a new colony.

I think the tldr is that this animal is made out of some cells with one genome from one parent, and other cells with a completely other genome from the other parent, rather than a single new genome the same in all cells, which until now was unheard of. Imagine if every other cell in your body was a transplant from someone else. And the additional remarkable item, is that this is not just a random fluke that can happe…

Not unheard of, just rare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_chimera

And worth noting that if all goes well, you'd never know you were chimeric.

Re: Crazy ants’ strange genomes are a biological first

#15

Post by [deleted] »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #6
Brian_K_White wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the tldr is that this animal is made out of some cells with one genome from one parent, and other cells with a completely other genome from the other parent, rather than a single new genome the same in all cells, which until now was unheard of. Imagine if every other cell in your body was a transplant from someone else. And the additional remarkable item, is that this is not just a random fluke that can happe…

While true, as a mother and environmental studies major, that wasn't the most important detail to me. A. Human women become chimeras when they carry a fetus. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8155153 B. It's the reason for the headline -- their weird chimeric males -- but it seems more important to me that it facilitates invasive behavior by allowing a single ant to start a new colony. YMMV, of course, and probabl…

[deleted]

Re: Crazy ants’ strange genomes are a biological first

#16

Post by Brian_K_White »

EamonnMR wrote: post #14
Brian_K_White wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the tldr is that this animal is made out of some cells with one genome from one parent, and other cells with a completely other genome from the other parent, rather than a single new genome the same in all cells, which until now was unheard of. Imagine if every other cell in your body was a transplant from someone else. And the additional remarkable item, is that this is not just a random fluke that can happe…

Not unheard of, just rare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_chimera And worth noting that if all goes well, you'd never know you were chimeric.

Unheard of. The wikipedia article is about individual flukes not species norms. This was covered in the article.

Re: Crazy ants’ strange genomes are a biological first

#17

Post by downvotetruth »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #6
Brian_K_White wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the tldr is that this animal is made out of some cells with one genome from one parent, and other cells with a completely other genome from the other parent, rather than a single new genome the same in all cells, which until now was unheard of. Imagine if every other cell in your body was a transplant from someone else. And the additional remarkable item, is that this is not just a random fluke that can happe…

While true, as a mother and environmental studies major, that wasn't the most important detail to me. A. Human women become chimeras when they carry a fetus. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8155153 B. It's the reason for the headline -- their weird chimeric males -- but it seems more important to me that it facilitates invasive behavior by allowing a single ant to start a new colony. YMMV, of course, and probabl…

By that (fetomaternal) microchimerism standard all human children are chimeras when they are born. The features of (fetomaternal) microchimerism would be better defined in the temporal dimension as a temporary genotype addition with respect to the lifespan of an organism.

Re: Crazy ants’ strange genomes are a biological first

#18

Post by thaumasiotes »

EamonnMR wrote: post #14
Brian_K_White wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the tldr is that this animal is made out of some cells with one genome from one parent, and other cells with a completely other genome from the other parent, rather than a single new genome the same in all cells, which until now was unheard of. Imagine if every other cell in your body was a transplant from someone else. And the additional remarkable item, is that this is not just a random fluke that can happe…

Not unheard of, just rare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_chimera And worth noting that if all goes well, you'd never know you were chimeric.

A human chimera would not have some cells with a genome from one parent and other cells with a separate genome from the other parent. That's not the way human reproduction or genetics works.
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