Why in News?

• About a week ago, the New England Aquarium in the US announced that a “virgin”
  anaconda had given birth during the winter.
• This is Immaculate Conception in Catholicism; in scientific terminology, it is
  parthenogenesis.
• This is only the second known case of parthenogenesis in green anacondas. It is not
  unknown in snakes, but undocumented enough to make it to scientific journals.

Parthenogenesis:

• The term parthenogenesis is a amalgam of the Greek words parthenos meaning virgin and
  genesis meaning origin.
• About 2,000 species are known to reproduce through parthenogenesis, which is one of the
  known means of asexual reproduction.
• It is a reproductive strategy that involves development of a female (rarely a male) gamete
  (sex cell) without fertililisation.
• It occurs commonly among lower plants and invertebrate animals (particularly rotifers,
  aphids, ants, wasps and bees) and rarely among higher vertebrates”.
• A gamete is the egg in females and the sperm in males. In animals, parthenogenesis means
  development of an embryo from an unfertilized egg cell.
• Many species that reproduce through parthenogenesis do not reproduce sexually. Others
  switch between the two modes taking cues from the environment.

How are the babies?

• Babies born through parthenogenesis are clones of the mother, as has now been confirmed
  by the aquarium through DNA tests.
• Parthenogenetic offspring tend to be clones of the parent because there has been no
  exchange and rearrangement of genetic information with another individual as happens in
  case of a sexual reproductive process.
• In some species, offspring born by parthenogenesis from a mother can also be male but it
  lacks one X chromosome.