The Great Gatsby

Alexander Orosco

Bio 101        

Prof Deborah Schaffer

12/8/14

                                                         Asexual Shark

             In Nebraska there was a female shark who was able to reproduce a baby shark without a male counter-part. Henry Fountain a writer for the New York Times , writes about a shark that was able to produce a child, "asexually." Sharks usually reproduce sexually, where the female and male mate and fuse their gametes to create a baby shark. The female shark was able to make a baby shark without going through that process. Researches said," female shark’s own genetic material combined during the process of cell division that produces an egg. A cell called the secondary oocyte, which contains half the female chromosomes and normally becomes the egg, fused with another cell called the secondary polar body, which contains the identical genetic material (Fountain, Henry 1)." Basically  The female shark sent her half of the gamete and fused it with another cell; since cells have genetic copies, it fused with it and was able to make a baby shark from the same genetic material.

    Throughout class, we have talked about the process of asexual reproduction and sexually reproduction. We have also talked about these rare occurrences that could happen, and how this could only be possible if already there in the genetics, or mutation. The article goes on to say the downfall to this maybe there would be a lack of DNA diversity, and how the species of sharks is going down, which could lead to dieses and limb displacement if having the same genetic material, which we talked about in class.

   This class helped me out tremendously understanding this article. With definitions such as, "asexual," and how odd and interesting it was to find out that a shark was able to do that, later understanding that could be possible as a "last resort," kind of thing, and having the genetic material to be able to do that. Also understanding that, what the shark was able to do was rare and thinking that it helps a lot with the species; looking the other side of things   and being able to recognize that this ability may not be as  good as it sounds like. Not having  DNA diversity could result in diseases and limb displacement. There was a couple of small details that I had to research. I did not know what was, "secondary oocyte," but that is more into detail in what we covered in class, fortunately that had no affect on me understanding what happened. Lastly, if you were curious the baby shark was killed shortly after by another animal.