... issues and tissues with a touch of the spicy from the spirit hag ...
look out boys, soon we won't need you at all ;)
Published on October 27, 2004 By mignuna In Current Events

 

Scientists at Tokyo University of Agriculture in Tokyo, Japan, have produced a female mouse that is the offspring of two female parents. Considered biologically impossible up until now, the female mice were able to produce a daughter without the involvement of any male cells or sperm.

 

The baby mouse, nicknamed “Kaguya” by scientists (after a Japanese folk tale of the moon princess Kaguya), has shattered the scientific belief that two mammals of the same sex cannot produce offspring after her creation from the genetic material of two mammalian egg cells.

 

In 'parthenogenesis' (or 'virgin birth') the egg is the sole source of genetic material for the embryo. Although this is a mode of reproduction for some species, in mammals parthenogenesis can begin if an egg is 'activated', but the resulting embryonic growth (or 'parthenote') never survives for more than 72 hours.

 

Tomohiro Kono and his colleagues at the Tokyo University of Agriculture in Tokyo, Japan, got around this problem by manipulating the nucleus of a female egg to make it produce a protein called IGF-2, which is crucial to embryonic growth, and is normally found within DNA from the sperm of the male.

 

The nucleuii of these manipulated eggs were then transferred into ‘normal’ eggs that were combined with the genomes of two females, and proceeded to grow and divide. However, from the 457 reconstructed eggs, Kaguya and one sister were the only live offspring.

 

The potential (and obvious) use of this technology as way to allow a pair of human females to reproduce without the need for a man is not viable, at least for now.  According to Azim Surani of Cambridge University, UK, males are still needed in human sexual reproduction.

 

"Clearly IGF-2 is the key gene," he says. "(They) managed to get around it, but to really get to a situation where the procedure would work as well as (fertilisation with) sperm, you would need to mutate a lot more genes."

 

In the near future, the work will be used to provide new genetic information to fields ranging from fundamental embryology to medically-assisted reproduction and the cloning of animals.

 

 

 

Quotes from: Link


Comments
on Oct 27, 2004
males are still needed in human sexual reproduction.



Thank God LOL
on Oct 27, 2004
It has been known for some time that this was possible (reproduction without a male), so the news does not come as a surprise, and is not that depressing. After all, without males, women would have no one to yell at when they have PMS!
on Oct 27, 2004
Thank God
i can almost hear your sigh of relief from here, manopeace !
It has been known for some time that this was possible (reproduction without a male),
yet it has not been previously possible for female mammals to reproduce without males, although other species have been manipulated to do so, as you say. thanks for the comment . vanessa/mig XX
on Oct 27, 2004
Oh, boy, now the LMC (lesbian mice coalition) will be petitioning for the right to get married...BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
on Oct 28, 2004
Oh, boy, now the LMC (lesbian mice coalition) will be petitioning for the right to get married...BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
i can't wait to get referrals for that one, chip. lesbian mice coalition ?. i love it !. mig XX
on Oct 30, 2004
First the turkey baster and now it's igf-12. Well at least this protein can't take out the trash
on Oct 31, 2004

First the turkey baster and now it's igf-12. Well at least this protein can't take out the trash

not to mention the fact that it can't, well, you know, 'do the horizontal tango' either !!!. (big negative selling point, that, ssg geezer).

plus, it can't fart in bed either. and we all know how much fun that is, right ? *sigh*

mig XXX