What is Parthenogenesis?
Typically, reproduction is thought of as the combination of sperm and egg to form a zygote. In parthenogenesis, however, an egg develops in the absence of fertilization. Adults resulting from parthenogenesis are typically haploid. When forming new cells, the cells of these individuals do not undergo meiosis. “Parthenogenesis” is derived from parenthenos, Greek for “virgin birth”. When parthenogenesis occurs in nature, an offspring is produced in the absence of a genetic father. Fertilization is able to occur in a female only setting. Artificially induced parthenogenesis typically results in an egg that has the capacity to divide cellularly. Forcing parthenogenesis in a non parthenogenetic individual is not done with the purpose of creating a viable offspring. Instead, experiments have been conducted to test conditions suitable for inducing division.
Parthenogenesis comes from the Greek parthenos, meaning “virgin” and genesis, meaning “creation.” It has been called “the virgin birth.” It is a form or reproduction that doesn’t require the egg to be fertilized. It is also called asexual reproduction and has been observed in lower species and in some lower plants. Some of these species include aphids, ants, rotifers and amphibians, lizards, amphibians, some snakes and fish. A man named Charles Bonnet , a Swiss naturalist and philosopher, first discovered parthenogenesis in the 18th century around the 1740’s. When he began is work Bonnet used spindle-tree aphids and attempted to explain the phenomenon. In the 1900’s, a man named Jacques Loeb, a German-born American biologist, achieved the first case of artificial parthenogenesis. It has since been tested in nearly all-major groups of animals. Artificial parthenogenesis has been used to study animals and plants and has also been experimented with on humans. To date there has not been a
Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction whereby females can produce viable eggs without fertilization by males. It is an ability possessed by a wide variety of plant and animal species, including most non-vascular plants (liverworts, hornworts, and mosses), a succulent plant genus in South Africa, assorted invertebrates, especially certain arthropods (water fleas, daphnia, rotifers, aphids, some bees, some scorpions, and parasitic wasps), and a few vertebrates (some reptiles, fish, and in a few instances, birds and sharks). In general, parthenogenesis is rare — most animals capable of asexual reproduction are very simple — either sponges or cnidarians (jellyfish, coral, etc), too simple to have sexes. The process of parthenogenesis should not be confused with the quality of hermaphroditism — a species with both male and female reproductive parts. In most hermaphroditic species, reproduction is still sexual, and requires two participants. Parthenogenesis is the only way tha
