Parthenogenesis: Virgin Births

Parthenogenesis, or virgin births, is an amazing process where females of some species can produce offspring without a male fertilizing her eggs. Several different species of animals are able to undergo parthenogenesis including sharks, lizards, snakes, salamanders, insects, birds, and even a few mammals when done artificially in a lab. In this video we explore how parthenogenesis is done on a cellular and chromosomal level. There are three main methods parthenogenesis is done. Automictic, Apomictic, and Haploid. I go over in great detail how each of these different methods is done on a chromosomal level. If you are unfamiliar with meiosis and how we get our reproductive cells (sperm and eggs) I would suggest quickly looking it over somewhere online, but I do go over it briefly in the video. There was nothing good online explaining how parthenogenesis is done on a cellular level so I decided to make this video explaining it. It was the best I could do with a very confusing topic. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments or give suggestions for other videos! Does anybody actually read the descriptions of videos?.. I mean I never do so I doubt anyone actually does. Special thanks to Charles Cole from the American Museum of Natural History for answering my questions about the Whiptail lizards! Sources and helpful links: Whiptail lizard sources Lutes et al., 2010. Sister chromosome pairing maintains heterozygosity in parthenogenetic lizards. Nature 464:283—286. Cole, C.J., Taylor, H.L., Baumann, D.P., Baumann, P. (2014). "Neaves' whiptail lizard: the first known tetraploid parthenogenetic tetrapod (Reptilia: Squamata: Teiidae)." Breviora. 539, 1-20. Cole. 1984. Unisexual lizards. Scientific American 250, no. 1: 94—100. http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2010/02/21/extra-chromosomes-allow-all-female-lizards-to-reproduce-without-males/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/asexual-lizards/ http://ricochetscience.com/variations-in-meiosis-the-parthenogenetic-lizards/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_grassland_whiptail_lizard Parthenogenesis sources "Parthenogenesis." New World Encyclopedia, . 26 Mar 2015, 16:00 UTC. 11 Jun 2015, 16:16 (http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Parthenogenesis&oldid=987045) van der Kooi, C.J.; Schwander, T. (2015). "Parthenogenesis: birth of a new lineage or reproductive accident?" (PDF). Current Biology 25: 659–651. Hedrick, Philip W. “Virgin Birth, Genetic Variation and Inbreeding.” Biology Letters 3.6 (2007): 715–716. PMC. Web. 29 Nov. 2015. Tariq Ezaz,Rami Stiglec,Frederic Veyrunes,Jennifer A. Marshall Graves. “Relationships between Vertebrate ZW and XY Sex Chromosome Systems” Current Biology Vol 16, Iss 17, (2006), 736–743. Lampert K. P. 2008 Facultative parthenogenesis in vertebrates: reproductive error or chance? Sex. Dev. 2,290–301. Schmerler, Samuel, and Gary Wessel. “Polar Bodies – More a Lack of Understanding than a Lack of Respect.” Molecular reproduction and development 78.1 (2011): 3–8. PMC. Web. 18 Dec. 2015. Apomictic and STICK INSECT sources Peter Van Dijk, “Apomixis: Basics for Non-botanists” Lost sex. 2009, pp 47-62 Schwander, Tanja; Lee Henry; Bernard J Crespi (2011). "Molecular evidence for ancient asexuality in timema stick insects.". Current Biology 21 (13): 1129–34. Schwander T, Crespi BJ. Multiple direct transitions from sexual reproduction to apomictic parthenogenesis in Timema stick insects. Evolution. 2009 Jan;63(1):84-103 http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14122050 Other helpful sources and links! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmKFDvHuuWA http://everything.explained.today/Parthenogenesis/ http://biology.about.com/od/geneticsglossary/g/parthenogenesis.htm http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-temperature-sex-determination-reptiles/ http://www.litebiology.com/2010/04/difference-chromatin-chromatid-chromosome.html Further reading on mammalian sex determinations http://www.life.illinois.edu/ib/201/lectures/SexChrom&SexDet.pdf All pictures/videos fall under Fair Use for the following reasons; this is nonprofit, they are for educational purposes, used for fact based content, and all pictures are transformed/re purposed/cropped in some way.