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Science

The Anglerfish Deleted Its Immune System To Fuse With Its Mate (wired.com) 53

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: There are few animals more bizarre than the anglerfish, a species that has so much trouble finding a mate that when the male and female do connect underwater, males actually fuse their tissue with the females for life. After the merger, the two share a single respiratory and digestive system. Now scientists have discovered that the anglerfish accomplishes this sexual parasitism because it has lost a key part of its immune system, which then allows two bodies to become one without tissue rejection.

All vertebrates, including humans, have two kinds of immune systems. The first is the innate system, which responds quickly to attacks by microscopic invaders with a variety of chemicals like mucous physical barriers like hair and skin, and disease-munching cells called macrophages. The second line of defense is an adaptive system that produces both "killer" T cells to attack the pathogen and antibodies custom-made to fight specific bacteria or viruses. The two systems work together to fight infections and prevent disease. But in a study published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers from Germany's Max Planck Institute and the University of Washington found that many anglerfish species (there are more than 300) have evolved over time to lose the genes that control their adaptive immune systems, meaning that they can't create antibodies and lack those T cells.

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The Anglerfish Deleted Its Immune System To Fuse With Its Mate

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  • I accidentally my immune system.

  • by Cylix ( 55374 )

    This will give me nightmares.

    • males actually fuse their tissue with the females for life. After the merger, the two share a single respiratory and digestive system.

      Sounds like several marriages I know of. Actually it's mostly the bank accounts and brains that get fused, but close enough.

  • Will Decker has to leave behind (delete) his meat puppet state so as to merge (fuse) with his mate. https://youtu.be/k2B90xlDcp4?t... [youtu.be]
  • by ghoul ( 157158 ) on Friday July 31, 2020 @11:29PM (#60354337)

    PSA: To the nerds in basements everywhere - deleting your immune system will not get you a mate. Do not go out and try to get HIV as a shortcut to finding mates.

    • by Anonymous Coward
      You've never heard of a bug chaser? You probably don't live in the Bay Area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
      • I'm sure it still exists somewhere on the fringe. But bug chasing here (At least in The City itself. I can't speak to the gay scenes in the rest of the Bay.) has mostly evaporated in the years since Truvada became available. Except for a very small few; it was not so much about catching HIV in the first place; as it was about barebacking. Some gay dudes just really, Really, REALLY don't like condoms; and either they just didn't care if they became positive, or they felt it was inevitable so they may as

    • Accepting HIV as a consequence increase the odds of finding a mate (up until then.)

    • by antdude ( 79039 )

      Do we have any Anglerfishes in here? https://slashdot.org/~Anglerfi... [slashdot.org] doesn't exist. Also, I'm an ant! :P

  • "when the male and female do connect underwater, males actually fuse their tissue with the females for life"

    Why portray it as the male fusing instead of both fusing together? The gendrist attitudes of the day are leaking through complete with a portrayal that this poor male fish is somehow trying to own her body.

    • by Anonymous Coward
      because a female can have multiple males attached to her, and after he attaches it's his organs that disappear.
    • Re:ummm.... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Moopstock ( 1602155 ) on Saturday August 01, 2020 @01:24AM (#60354513)
      They also should not use the term "sexual parasitism" when it's clearly "sexual mutualism" as the species would not survive without this reproductive strategy. The female's hormonal system is in control of attracting a male; she releases her scent into the abyss on the sole purpose of acquiring a male. She may have one or many male counterparts and she will stop attracting males when she becomes satisfied.
      • Have my own theory on the development of sex I came up with in the early 90's -- not sure if it's an accepted theory or not because I haven't looked.

        Anyway, my theory is that when single celled organisms first developed -- there was soon parasitism, as it's an even better strategy than consuming an organism for one quick meal. Parasitism was so common that some cells developed "genetic riders" to add their genes to that of the invading cell -- to ensure their genes were preserved. Thus, sex was born. Later

        • Where does bacterial conjugation fit in your theory? It is a very common strategy for horizontal gene transfer - at least between moderately closely related organisms.

          Interesting speculation, but I think it falls down at several points because the actual complexity of the biology of existing organisms indicates that other things happened too. and I know I'm not a biologist or biochemists, just a rock-botherer with a thang for Origin(s) Of Life research. for example, you use the terms "sperm" and "egg", wit

    • Well, otherwise describing the abuse of her partner as a merr sperm organ as "parasitic" (by thr male) would not work, and we could not virtue signal and spew sexist hate at the same time! Duh. :P

    • Re:ummm.... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Saturday August 01, 2020 @06:54AM (#60354869) Journal

      Why portray it as the male fusing instead of both fusing together?

      Because that's how it works. Male finds female. Male bites female and starts secreting enzymes and hormones to induce fusion. The tiny male thereby fuses itself to the large female fish. The male's organs and brain is then absorbed leaving only a pair of testicles.

      End result, the animal with the most balls is a female angler fish. It's not unusual for one of those fish to be rocking 8 pairs of nuts.

      In some species, the males don't even have fully developed digestive systems. They can't even eat, they fuse to a female or starve. It is very one sided.

      • The tiny male thereby fuses itself to the large female fish.

        The problem here isn't that this fusion isn't characterized as an equal fusion between male and female. As you point out, it's clearly unequal.

        The problem is that even when a fusion (marriage) between male and female human is clearly unequal, we still insist that it be called equal. Everyone is too scared to point out the truth - that it was unequal.

        • The problem is that even when a fusion (marriage) between male and female human is clearly unequal, we still insist that it be called equal. Everyone is too scared to point out the truth - that it was unequal.

          Eh?

      • So many parallels to human courtship.
  • by aaarrrgggh ( 9205 ) on Saturday August 01, 2020 @12:37AM (#60354451)

    ...but this is really cool!!

    Always interesting to see how we adapt to our environment...

  • These fish have really read the bible, and really do keep their vows. As opposed to modern women who say 'I love you forever until I find someone better'. Is there a Popefish?
  • Thats one way To avoid infidelity. Takes that whole, till death do us part bit to an entirely new level.

  • "have evolved over time to lose the genes that control their adaptive immune systems" Animals, plants, whatever do not evolve over time 'to' anything. This is no different than saying birds evolved over time to gain wings to fly. "Anglerfish have traded in their immune faculties" Again, there is no 'trading' in evolution. Creatures do not control their own evolution. If scientists will not speak properly about their own subjects, why should they be trusted?
  • by SoundGuyNoise ( 864550 ) on Saturday August 01, 2020 @10:25AM (#60355203) Homepage
    I read this in a Ze Frank voice.
  • If we can suppress a body's natural tendency to reject tissue which isn't its own, this opens the transplant field. No longer would we have to worry about an organ being rejected because it wasn't a close match. Fingers, hands, arms, legs, entire eyes, pretty much every part of the body could be transplanted/transferred from one body to another without issues.

    This might have made things slightly easier for Bonnie Culp [sfgate.com].

    • Unfortunately the downside of disabling the ability to differentiate "self" from "non-self" is much, much more cancer.

      The immune system(s) is(are) an interplay between cancer suppression and having sex cells with a different genetic make up to the parent cells. That's also one of the reasons that when women get pregnant, a common side effect is to alter the expression of both benign cancers and autoimmune diseases (rosacea, psoriosis, etc.) It's not universal, but it is common. See also graft-vs-host and h

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