Mutant Crayfish Clone is Taking Over Europe

[Oxytropidoceras]

Below is an example of how weird and rapid evolution can be. I have to

wonder how often this has happened in the past and how invisible it would

beto  a paleontologist with nothing but hard parts as fossils and the lack

of temporal resolution in the geologic record.

 

This Mutant Crayfish Clones Itself, and It’s Taking Over Europe

Carl Zimmer. New York Times, Feb. 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/science/mutant-crayfish-clones-europe.html

 

Decoding the mutant, all-female, self-cloning crayfish

Kevin Bersett, University of Illinois, September 12, 2018

https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2018/09/decoding-the-mutant-all-female-self-cloning-crayfish

 

The Genetic Mystery Of The Invasive Crayfish Clones, Science Friday

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/the-genetic-mystery-of-the-invasive-crayfish-clones/

 

the paper is:

 

Gutekunst, J., Andriantsoa, R., Falckenhayn, C., Hanna, K., 

Stein, W., Rasamy, J. and Lyko, F., 2018. Clonal genome 

evolution and rapid invasive spread of the marbled crayfish.

Nature ecology & evolution, 2(3), p.567.

https://forum.breastcarenetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Gutekunst-et-al.pdf

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0467-9

 

Maybe it is time for a crayfish broil.

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

[Manticocerasman]

4 hours ago, Oxytropidoceras said:

 

 

Maybe it is time for a crayfish broil.

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

since they are clones,  will we be eating the same crayfish over and over ?

 

interesting articles

I used to keep stick-insects, they also reproduced asexually. it was quite a job to controle their poppulation in the terrarium.

 

 

 

[Wrangellian]

20 minutes ago, Manticocerasman said:

since they are clones,  will we be eating the same crayfish over and over ?

 

 

Hey, a crayfish that is threatening other crayfish species? Sounds like as good an excuse for a feast as any!

[DPS Ammonite]

You mean that most of our members, (males), might become obsolete someday. When we are needed it will be too late after disease wipes out all the females (everyone) because they lacked genetic diversity provided by sexual reproduction.

 

One of the articles mentioned that cloned species rarely survive (as species) as long as non cloned species because sexual reproduction provides more resistance to diseases.

[ziggycardon]

And that's exactly the reason why Procambarus fallax & Procambarus clarkii are now on the EU Regulation on invasive alien species both species carry (but are immune to) crayfish plague and their introduction into the European waters decimated populations of our native crayfish.

They were quite popular in the aquarium hobby before the ban in 2016, used to have them myself as well, unfortunately a lot of idiots released them into the wild which caused all those problems so the ban came in 2016, only 30 - 40 years to late.

 

Very interesting article to read, a typical example of

I have heard similar stories of Achatina fulica as well, which is another notorious invasive species in many parts of the world. 
I used to breed them, but since they are very productive at reproduction, I only sold them individually, never in pairs or groups so people wouldn't have explosions in population numbers. But I have heard 2 times of people who got juvenile snails from me (which weren't mature enough to be fertile when I sold them) to have produced offspring a few years later without any contact with other snails. 
And I know of other people from invertebrate fora to have had the same experiences. 
As far as I know no scientific research has been done to proof Parthenogenesis in Achatina fulica, but it definitely happens.
Life truly is a curious thing.