Cloning In The Animal Kingdom

tanveer1979 writes "The New Scientist is carrying an interesting article on cloning in nature." From the article: "The ant Wasmannia Auropunctata, which is native to Central and South America but has spread into the US and beyond, has opted for a unique stand-off in the battle of the sexes. Both queens and males reproduce by making genetically identical copies of themselves - so males and females seem to have entirely separate gene pools. Conventional reproduction happens only to produce workers. This is the first instance in the animal kingdom where males reproduce exclusively by cloning, though male honeybees do it occasionally." National Geographic is also carrying the story.

Attack of the Clones!

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one welcome our new ant-cloning Wasmannia Auropunctata overlords!

Re: Ants in the Pants

[ViX44]

I find it interesting that they speak as though the male ants had an intelligence that decided to modify its genes as described. I tried changing my genes and it didn't help me run faster, jump higher, or gain the ability to remember where I put my keys. Usually, I don't find those bad boys until I change my jeans.

Does Cloning Help...?

[__aaclcg7560]

Whether they clone or not doesn't concern me. They are all equal in my eyes when I'm holding the Raid can.

Reproduction through cloning

[Faust7]

This is the first instance in the animal kingdom where males reproduce exclusively by cloning

Are you kidding? How do you think Slashdotters reproduce?

Obvious first though from certain "parties"

[sabernet]

They are an afront to Jesus and the holy book and thy sinning, cloning, ants that dare copulate in an unnatural way must be cast down to the lair of Satan.

Re: Ants in the Pants

[jcgf]

I remember back in the '80s we used to modify our jeans with a pair of scissors. That didn't help us run faster, jump higher, or gain the ability to remember where we put our keys either. Oh well 2 down, ininitely many more to go.

Rice

[Anonymous Coward]

Ever see ants carrying little white things that look like rice? That is them moving their larvae about.

Oh shit! I thought they were stealing rice from my kitchen, so I stole it back and later used it to make stir fry. *gag*

Here in the mechanics' garage...

[gardyloo]

"This apparently gave males both the time and the means to evolve a counterattack--converting some of the workers into males."



Huh. Around here, we hang up posters of nekkid queen ants. Oooooh, those unarticulated segements! Kind of makes you want to pupate, doesn't it?

zerg

[Lord Omlette]

Clearly, all ants are going to hell.

Raid

[Anonymous Coward]

Q: How does the PHB make the IT department's server storage redundant and bug free?

A: He sprays it with Raid.


Lame, I know....

Selfish Women!

[jabex]

From the article:
"'It's a selfish strategy initiated by females [in which] queens transmit 100 percent of their genome,' Fournier said."

Wow, sounds like Fournier is waging his own battle of the sexes. Those selfish females, they want to clone themselves rather than have sex with me!

Re:Is that anything like...

[TheGavster]

Indeed. If your population is replenished only by cloning, its a good idea to run a quick fsck on the samples used for each generation, lest you accidently produce a generation of less than stellar genetic integrity.

Here come the christians...

[kd5ujz]

But..but..they will not have a soul.

Re:Reproduction through cloning

[MPHellwig]

"How do you think Slashdotters reproduce?"

There is no way you can have the words: "think", "slashdotters" and "reproduce" in 1 sentence without having at least 1 impossibility.

Re:small case species

[DrSkwid]

It's it's not its. See you in hell.

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