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Asked by to Claire, Ian, Sergey, Vicky, Zena on 18 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Ian Simpson answered on 18 Jun 2014:
There are no known examples of humans that arose through asexual reproduction, but it is technically possible.
There is a process called parthenogenesis whereby the gametes, in this case it would be an egg, divides without being fertilised. The resulting embryo would be female as the only possible sex chromosome combinations would be XX or YY and the latter would not be viable due to their being essential genes encoded on the X (normal males are XY).
If such an embryo came to term (which is unlikely) then it would likely have significant developmental abnormalities due in part to the way in which what are called “epigenetic” markers are distributed. These are chemical modifications of the DNA that are set up in a different way in sperm and egg and are partially inherited and re-programmed during and post fertilisation of the egg. If these “imprints” are wrong it affects the expression of some very important genes for human development.
There are lots of other organisms that do exhibit parthenogenesis such as plants and certain insects like bees and even some fish and birds, but it is rare in vertebrates.
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Sergey Lamzin answered on 18 Jun 2014:
Naturally – no you can not reproduce asexually naturally, there is no biological mechanism in humans to do that.
Artificially – yeah, ever heard of cloning? Human cloning is possible, it’s just forbidden.Why in the seven hells would you want to do that anyways? Takes all the joy out of the process!
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Zena Hira answered on 18 Jun 2014:
Well they can with artificial insemination. The doctor takes an egg, and sperm and put it in the mother so that the egg will start developing. It’s mostly used for people who can’t have kids.
If you are talking about actual parthenogenesis then no. There isn’t a known incident of that
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filipahmed commented on :
thanks for the info