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Did HeLa ever demonstrate speciation via sexual reproduction and natural selection or just the simpler mutations-passed-on mode? The vanishingly rare trick wi

Did HeLa ever demonstrate speciation via sexual reproduction and natural selection or just the simpler mutations-passed-on mode? The vanishingly rare trick with speciation by natural selection in sexually reproducing creatures is that you have to have find a compatible partner.

Retric 2y ago
The first, but speciation via sexual reproduction is much easier as non sexual reproduction blurs the lines of what counts as a species. For sexual reproduction simply isolate populations and they drift apart genetically. This is why you can get ring species and populations that can’t get in touch naturally are considered separate species even if when artificially reintroduced they could interbreed. Thus many invasive species technically count if they could naturally get in touch the species would already be in that location. Anyway that’s based on the current definition used by zoologists though some people find this definition unsatisfying but in both directions. Grizzlies and polar bears can interbreed and therefore count as the same species in that definition even though they are developing different traits not just hair color but body weight is diverging. In the end biology doesn’t give a fuck about our definitions so things are messy.
- dumbo-octopus 2y ago
  Could you provide a reference on the claim that HeLa engages in sexual reproduction? I cannot find anything about that online.
  - Retric 2y ago
    It doesn’t, sorry for being unclear I cut out a big chunk of the comment and left that bit hanging. I had a bit about horizontal gene transfer being more common on closely related organisms which somewhat maintains the idea of species in a single non sexual world, but it wasn’t worth going into. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer

Retric 2y ago

The first, but speciation via sexual reproduction is much easier as non sexual reproduction blurs the lines of what counts as a species. For sexual reproduction simply isolate populations and they drift apart genetically. This is why you can get ring species and populations that can’t get in touch naturally are considered separate species even if when artificially reintroduced they could interbreed. Thus many invasive species technically count if they could naturally get in touch the species would already be in that location. Anyway that’s based on the current definition used by zoologists though some people find this definition unsatisfying but in both directions. Grizzlies and polar bears can interbreed and therefore count as the same species in that definition even though they are developing different traits not just hair color but body weight is diverging. In the end biology doesn’t give a fuck about our definitions so things are messy.

dumbo-octopus 2y ago
Could you provide a reference on the claim that HeLa engages in sexual reproduction? I cannot find anything about that online.
- Retric 2y ago
  It doesn’t, sorry for being unclear I cut out a big chunk of the comment and left that bit hanging. I had a bit about horizontal gene transfer being more common on closely related organisms which somewhat maintains the idea of species in a single non sexual world, but it wasn’t worth going into. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer