5 ms·
What if it's just plain old XX vs XY chromosomes?
by RyanZAG 9y ago
What if it's just plain old XX vs XY chromosomes?
- simonh 9y agoSo rats have a built in gene sequencer and detect the base pairs directly?
- RyanZAG 9y agoProbably not, but why is that so far fetched? They'd just need to be dissolving it with chemicals, backed up by a neural network to identify the sequence (rat's brain, anyone?). That's kind of how smell works in general to begin with. As for why rats may develop the ability to sequence XX vs XY - if rats with the ability to do so were killed far less than those without, then rats would quickly evolve the ability to do so. This could happen if males were the ones killing rats and not females. Actually, skip the 'probably not' I began with - it's a perfectly likely explanation that may or may not be true based on further study.
- inciampati 9y agoOr there could be a signaling molecule specific to sex that directly interacts with some receptive system in the animal. Maybe it's nose? DNA sequencing would be an awfully slow signal given the technology available to the organism...
- rimliu 9y agoYour friend's eye color is defined by some genes. You don't need a gene sequencer to see what they are.
- inciampati 9y agoTo see the color you mean?
- vetinari 9y agoNo, the color of irides.
- ajuc 9y ago(S)he can be wearing contact lens, though. And the researchers can be taking drugs changing their smell, possibly changing the mice behaviour.
- simonh 9y agoRight, but wehat you detect is the eye colour, not the genes that cause it. Similarly with the rats they detect the pheromones in a male's smell, not the XY chromosomes. So suggesting they detect the XY chromosomes isn't helpful.