Question

The accidental creation of a "sturddlefish", a hybrid of an American paddlefish and Russian sturgeon. Please provide sources for each answer. Thanks.

1. What was the original purpose of the researcher's experiment? ( Hint: what fish were they more interested in and why?)

2. What is "gynogenesis?" Explain briefly how this works

3. What is the hypothesis regarding the ability of the two types of fish to hybridize?

4. What did the offspring of these two fish resemble?

Answer 1

ANSWER:

1. The original purpose of the researcher's experiment was to -

As both the species Russian sturgeon ( Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) and American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) belongs to endangered species list. The scientist at Hungary, were trying to get endangered Russian sturgeon fish to reproduce asexually, as it was a source of finest top-shelf caviar in the world.For this, they actually wanted to induce the process of gynogenesis in the Russian sturgeon. Gynogenesis is referred to as a type of parthenogenic reproduction where the sperm cell of the American paddle fish was used to trigger the embryogenesis but does not transfer any DNA to Russian sturgeon and thus not contributing in its genetic makeup.But unlike planned, the DNA of the American paddle fish went through accidentally, and a new fish "struddlefish".was born.

2.Gynogenesis is referred to as a type of parthenogenic reproduction and thus is a form of asexual reproduction, where the sperm cell was used to trigger the embryogenesis but does not transfer any DNA constituent  and thus do not contribute in its genetic makeup. In this process , the paternal DNA is destroyed or dissolve , even before it can fuse with the egg cell and thus the egg cell is developed into an adult having only maternal genetic material.Gynogenenesis is also called "sperm parasitism" due to the useless contribution of male gametes towards the development of the offspring.

3.The hybridized fish were categorized into two groups. The group one was which has equal amount of maternal as well as paternal DNA and looked similar mixture of both two parent species. However the group two species had twice as much amount of the maternal DNA due to chromosome doubling and thus resembled the Russian sturgeon. The hypothesis regarding the both the groups of hybrid fish was they are sexually sterile and thus cannot reproduce in wild .

4. The offspring of Russian sturgeon and American paddle fish is the newly introduced species called- "StruddleFish". The struddlefish was more weird looking than the parents species, with half of them resembling their mother (Russian sturgeon) due to twice as much amount of DNA , possibly due to chromosome doubling and half looking like a mixture of both ,displaying equal combination of physical characteristic from both the parent species and having approximately same amount of DNA.