Animals fast sex ... 40 million years

A small group of Earth's inhabitants survived without caring about " love " for tens of millions of years, thanks to a sophisticated evolutionary trick.

Asexual reproduction has allowed these single-celled organisms ( bdelloid rotifers ) to produce different gene copies over time, helping them adapt and survive, the researchers claim.

Previous researchers have also shown that translucent animals that live in this water can survive up to 40 million years without bisexual mating. The question is, how do they survive without gene exchange through mating.

"Bisexual reproduction is considered to be a good thing in evolution. So when you encounter a creature like bdelloid rotifers, animals don't crave" love "in millions of years, you will start to suspect why sex is important " - said Alan Tunnacliffe, a molecular biologist at Cambridge University.

Bdelloid rotifers specialize in lakes. They create different gene copies to survive and evolve. (Photo: Reuters)

All animal species and bisexual plants have nearly identical pairs of genes, one from father and one from mother. And so, there must always be two opposite sexes to reproduce the younger generation. But when studying with molecular cloning technology, Tunnacliffe found that bdelloid rotifers overcome this with an evolutionary trick, allowing its genes to drift apart and evolve themselves.

"No sex means that genes can evolve in different directions. It's like you have a bigger gene pool, which makes it easier to choose for different functions."

T. An