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sestra_kerryA few years ago a team at Harvard University showed that bdelloids didn't indulge in what scientists call cryptic sex, sneaking off for a quick one when no-one was looking. These creatures really have survived without sex, but how do they do it?
Today, in the journal Science, a team led by Dr Alan Tunnacliffe from the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge has found that part of the answer to the riddle lies in the fact that the creatures have two copies of each gene, as humans do.
But unlike humans, where both genes do the same thing, the bdelloids can use each copy in different ways - and this can only happen in creatures that clone each other, rather than have sex. "It's like they have two genes for the price of one, and they have used this evolutionary bargain to improve their lifestyle...
The different genes enable bdelloids to survive being dehydrated for years. They then revive, having suffered no ill effect, once water becomes available again."
Явление независимого эволюционирования двух аллелей одного гена вследствие отсутствия мейоза, то есть фактическое существование в клетке двух геномов в одном, получило название "Meselson effect", в честь Метью Мезельсона, американского генетика, описавшего его на все тех же бделоидных коловратках.
Today, in the journal Science, a team led by Dr Alan Tunnacliffe from the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge has found that part of the answer to the riddle lies in the fact that the creatures have two copies of each gene, as humans do.
But unlike humans, where both genes do the same thing, the bdelloids can use each copy in different ways - and this can only happen in creatures that clone each other, rather than have sex. "It's like they have two genes for the price of one, and they have used this evolutionary bargain to improve their lifestyle...
The different genes enable bdelloids to survive being dehydrated for years. They then revive, having suffered no ill effect, once water becomes available again."
Явление независимого эволюционирования двух аллелей одного гена вследствие отсутствия мейоза, то есть фактическое существование в клетке двух геномов в одном, получило название "Meselson effect", в честь Метью Мезельсона, американского генетика, описавшего его на все тех же бделоидных коловратках.
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