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A few years ago, Christopher Hamm was reading up on monarch butterflies when he noticed something peculiar. All of the scientific articles that mentioned the number of the insect's chromosomes—30, it seemed—referenced a 2004 paper, which in turn cited a 1975 paper. But when Hamm, then a postdoc at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, did a genetic analysis of his own, he found that his monarchs only had 28 chromosomes, suggesting that an error has pervaded the literature for more than 40 years. Another twist, however, was just around the corner.
Hamm suspected a mistake when he read the original 1975 paper. The authors, biologists N. Nageswara Rao and A. S. Murty at Andhra University in Visakhapatnam, India, had studied what they claimed was an Indian monarch butterfly in their work. But there's a problem: Monarchs are nearly exclusively a North American species. "It's implied they just went outside their building and collected some butterflies," Hamm says. "I immediately thought, 'Monarch butterflies in India? Really?'"
[...] Case closed, right? Not quite. A paper published a few days later on bioRxiv by some of Hamm's former colleagues at the University of Kansas claims to have found, like Rao and Murty, 30 chromosomes in monarchs. "Previously, an observation of N=30 chromosomes was reported only for males (Nageswara-Rao and Murty 1975)," the authors write. "Our current analysis confirms the same chromosome number not only in males but also in females." The authors of that paper declined to comment on Hamm's findings.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 28 2017, @03:30AM (1 child)
I'm no lepidopterist - know very little about butterflies, really. But, this article prompted me to do a search on the monarch. Wiki has an interesting piece - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_butterfly [wikipedia.org] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_butterfly_migration [wikipedia.org]
It seems that genetically modified crops affect the numbers and the health of monarch butterflies. Specifically, it has been claimed that GMO helps to reduce the number of milkweeds on arable land, which provides food for the butterflies during migration. The claim is disputed by other studies - but once again, we are looking at an issue which might impact corporate profits if the claim is proven.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:33AM
I'm no lepidopterist - know very little about butterflies, really.
As in all things, Runaway! We have come to expect no less of you! And, of course, no more? Since you have no knowledge of that on which you post, as with everything else you post upon, we do not really expect anything except your own dyed in the wool hillbilly Faux News watching opinion. Oh, but you seem to have found a Wiki? Wow, how appropriate! GMO's, you say! The Deuce, you say! Is this just like global warming and planned parenthood making money from bake sales of fetus parts?