Cold Cruel Sex | Table O Contents
The Cold Cruel Reality of Sex As a Genetic Reproductive Tool …
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Synergistic Epistasis
Hint. Veronica Greenwood has compiled an article for Quanta magazine that begs the question “What Is The True Function of Sexual Reproduction In Species?”
Real genetic disasters can happen to two seemingly very healthy adults when their conception dances the recombination of meiosis.
In fact, commonly between fifty (50) and seventy (70) such mutations of Single Nucleic Polymorphisms (SNPs) per individual have been found in and around codons and areas or locations observed in both human and fruit fly genomes known to be involved in the replication of proteins.
Change one letter of the genome here, and a cascade of effects may render that offspring unable to reproduce.
Like a giant roulette wheel in the sky, every time we extend the species we either bless, or curse, or neuter the next generation’s ability to pass on their combination of genes.
Sum it up over the generations and between fifty (50) and seventy (70) mutations per conception quickly adds up!
If the reality of steady mutations in our genomes is so deleterious …
Then how have we exploded from a bottleneck of maybe 10,000 breeding pairs tens of thousands of years ago to the billions and billions of people that now inhabit this planet today?
The answer is evidently not all of these mutations are harmful.
But, the ones that do raise havoc with our ability to manufacture specific well ordered proteins in proper shapes and sizes are quickly shuttled to the dustpan of history.
Hence, two perfectly paired individuals can fail to reproduce given the probability that both parents deep down harbor deleterious combinations of genes not affecting their lives, but perhaps affecting the future lives of their proposed offspring if allowed to conceive and combine.
Sex, therefore, becomes nature’s way of cleansing the genome of such covert risk.
The SNP Stops Here
“That unlucky individual loaded with bad mutations could be a sperm cell that’s not fit enough to ever reach the egg, or an organism that is not healthy enough to ever reproduce.”
“Either way … that combination of mutations coupled with the risk of still future compounding will drop out of the population totally … never to be passed on.”
The process and purpose of sifting and randomly aligning genes diluted through the generations is, therefore, to minimize the faults associated with their precursors, and to accentuate the fresh new positives of recombination placed upon the first familial generations, or F1s.
Commonly known as “hybrid vigour”, back-crossing is another less socially acceptable form of recombination that can stabilize a trait, or traits.
It is also impossible if one generation dies before a later generation has the opportunity to back-cross.
Eugenics
Look at your children.
Are they vibrant, or sullen?
If not vibrant, then perhaps a recombination with branches of the tree that appear disparate would offer an opportunity to reshuffle the deck positively and reconnect previously distant positive combinations.
If vibrant indeed, cautiously consider what may be lurking under the hood undetected.
For absences in the population tend to favor places at the high end of the mutational distribution.
If neither of the above scenarios fits your bill, then simply “Go For It!”
It’s only natural.
Last Subtitle
More to come …
Note. The above synopsis was derived from an article written by Veronica Greenwood [1].
- What If Sex Is Just A Garbage Dump For Genetic Mutations. Published by © 2017 Wired.com.
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