Sans Sex, Bdelloids Party On


	Sans Sex, Bdelloids Party On

wildcat

4-4-2008 4:24 AM

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tags:

asexuality, biology, bdelloids, dna

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/0fb4306b-c059-4d21-9386-7be19a34a1b8/10F604F4-B0A0-4640-9BD0-40762F73C56B/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.livescience.com/animals/080404-dna-repair-sex.html" href="http://www.livescience.com/animals/080404-dna-repair-sex.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.livescience.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animals/080404-dna-repair-sex.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.livescience.com/img/2B23088E-7B6F-47AC-A300-5E3090FFD0B6" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animals/080404-dna-repair-sex.html"><P>
Could you give up sex and survive?
</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animals/080404-dna-repair-sex.html"><P>
Apparently microscopic, spineless critters named <A href="http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?s=animals&c=&l=on&pic=080404-little-creatures-02.jpg&cap=A+pair+of+bdelloids+probably+don%27t+get+excited+about+each+other+as+two+humans+in+such+close+proximity+might.+Bdelloids+don%27t+need+sex+to+reproduce.+Credit:+Marine+Biological+Laboratory&title=" linkindex="21">bdelloids</A>  (yes, bdelloids) seem to have done without for tens of millions of years.
</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animals/080404-dna-repair-sex.html"><P>
The secret? An extraordinarily potent way to repair damaging mutations that can build up in DNA when sex is absent.
</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animals/080404-dna-repair-sex.html"><P>
Asexuality is often thought to be a dead end in evolution, as only about 2,000 of the world's roughly 2 million named species are completely asexual, reproducing by simply splitting in two or some other method that doesn't rely on rolling in the hay. 
</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animals/080404-dna-repair-sex.html"><P>
Life without sex is conjectured to lead to extinction because of the way DNA naturally accumulates mutations. In animals that <A href="http://www.livescience.com/animals/061114_mating_game.html" linkindex="22">do have sex</A>, healthy genes from one parent can serve as templates to help repair damaged genes from the other parent, for theoretically <A href="http://www.livescience.com/health/050330_sex_good.html" linkindex="23" set="yes">healthier offspring</A> . Asexual species, lacking such a means of DNA repair, are thought to accrue harmful mutations over time that can help bring an end to a species.
</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/10F604F4-B0A0-4640-9BD0-40762F73C56B/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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