“ Split-Sex Animals Are Unusual,Yes,but not as rare as you think”
This article was about the epidemic of split-sex animals. The purpose of this article was to give an explanation as to why certain diseases cause one more sex more often than the other. A gyandromorph is a butterfly with a color and pattern that is male on one wing and female on the other. A biologist called Napel Patel, has been critically thinking about one question for years. During a butterfly’s embryonic and larvae development, he wanted to know the mechanism in which cells knew where to stop and where to go.
In insects, this mechanism is understood well. The process of gyandromorphism occurs when two sperm enter an egg. The sperms grows without another set of chromosomes within the same egg. One of those sperms combine with the nucleus of the egg and a female insect develops. Then, both a male and female insect develops within the same body. The foundings of gyandromorphism suggest that there is more to learn about butterflies and bees in nature. The birth of gyandromorphs is still a huge mystery till this day.
Dr.Arnold conducted a research at UCLA on sex genes to see if there is implications in treating a myriad of human diseases that seem to vary by gender. His partner, Rhonda Voskhul , discovered that in multiple sclerosis a female mouse with two X chromosomes does worse than a mouse with and X and Y , even if their hormones are the same. If they could understand why females cope worse could really help treat multiple sclerosis in people. According to their results, women are diagnosed with M.S. three times more than men. Dr.Arnold said, “ A better understanding of the role of sex in disease would eventually enable better treatments.” I strongly agree with his stance on this issue. If they can find a way to manipulate the disease process, this would surely help them understand the sex differences.
This article particularly interested me because I wanted to learn about gyandromorphism. It makes me wonder if flexible gender expression is fueled by only evolving permission in our society. Hoenstly, I feel like these gyandromorphs should happen more often. Sometimes being peculiar from other creatures is an amazing thing. Hence, this is how new species have evolved. If a butterfly comes with this type of diversity, imagine what the human body or brain is capable of.
I think that it is a bit disappointing that these scientists don’t get enough funding for their research. This is proof that we need more science funding and education to provide evidence that the past human behaviors that may have been diagnosed as psychological is actually biological. If the government were to give them funding, imagine all the wonderful scientific findings they would’ve discovered.
