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Mystery Behind Virgin [SNAKE] Births Explained

Jeff, he mentions two possible ways to store sperm.

He and Schuett said internal sperm storage tubules or an ability to twist a portion of the uterus might explain how the rattlesnake stored sperm for five years. To manage the second trick, Booth said "a region of the uterus becomes convoluted and contracted, which may act as a plug sequestering the sperm until ovulation."

Are those both theories (for snakes in general, not that particular species) or is there anatomical or some other sort of evidence or "proof?"
 
I can't remember the show, but I think it was at the Rattlesnake Museum, supposedly had a virgin that gave birth to one baby. I could be wrong about where it was.
 
Bob, if you read the article, they talk about how they can prove parthenogenesis by DNA. The rattlesnake in question was a WC yearling, so was thought to be a virgin because she was supposedly too young to breed. They determined, though, that she had in fact bred before her capture and stored the sperm for five years.
 
Eh looked for the show I was talking about, been a long time so could have remembered it wrong, but was not a recent thing like the article.
 
Here is a paper about the uterine twisting. I couldn't find a public version of the entire paper, but if you are interested in reading the whole thing, let me know and I can email the PDF.

Reproductive cycle of the Neotropical Crotalus durissus terrificus: II. Establishment and maintenance of the uterine muscular twisting, a strategy for long-term sperm storage.

Abstract:
Crotaline snakes store sperm by means of a uterine musculature twisting (UMT). We investigated the influence of plasma levels of estradiol and progesterone and vasotocinase cystine aminopeptidase (CAP) activity on UMT formation and maintenance, and the in vitro uterine reactivity for AVT in Crotalus durissus terrificus in primary or secondary vitellogenesis with or without UMT. Frequency of females in secondary vitellogenesis with UMT is significantly higher than in primary one. Estradiol levels did not vary in all conditions studied, however, significantly low levels of progesterone were found in snakes in secondary vitellogenesis with UMT compared to those without it. UMT is always observed when high levels of estradiol and low levels of progesterone are detected. CAP activity did not change in the presence of UMT. AVT produced concentration-response contractions of the isolated uterus of snakes in all stages analysed and the pD2 value and maximum contractile response were significantly higher in primary vitellogenesis without UMT than in other reproductive conditions, indicating that uterus of those snakes presents a higher contractile capacity which may favour UMT establishment. In conclusion, we show a relationship of UMT and estradiol/progesterone balance and a possible participation of AVT in UMT formation and maintenance in the Neotropical rattlesnake.


Also, here is the link to the paper referenced in the article on the Venom Interviews fb page, if you are interested in reading about sperm storage and parthenogenesis in more detail (not sure if this is a public link though since I am at work right now and have access to lots of journals).
 
Cool, thanks! I got the entire article, but I'm at a university, so I have access to things like that, usually. I wish my PDF printing wasn't screwed up.
 
crotalis40741 said:
I can't remember the show, but I think it was at the Rattlesnake Museum, supposedly had a virgin that gave birth to one baby. I could be wrong about where it was.
Click to expand...

This has been documented a couple of times with supposed "virgins" and now with DNA becoming cheaper we have a better picture whether it is parthenogenesis or mating.
 
Nanci, I just had to laugh at you having problems with printing PDFs. I just tried to save that article and I am having troubles saving PDFs...ugh computers.

Isn't it great being at a university and being able to get all these great journal articles :)
 
Nanci said:
Jeff, he mentions two possible ways to store sperm.

He and Schuett said internal sperm storage tubules or an ability to twist a portion of the uterus might explain how the rattlesnake stored sperm for five years. To manage the second trick, Booth said "a region of the uterus becomes convoluted and contracted, which may act as a plug sequestering the sperm until ovulation."

Are those both theories (for snakes in general, not that particular species) or is there anatomical or some other sort of evidence or "proof?"
Click to expand...

This is mostly what I've heard but I am more of an ecology buff so the papers with DNA, enzymes, internal sperm storage tubules, etc are not often the articles I read. Count me out if you need a microscope--I'd rather be in field gear doing radio telemetry or some other sampling!
 
Dr. Warren Booth studies actual "virgin" births that came from female Boas that were not placed with a male ever.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9139000/9139971.stm

Another case happened for Jeff Ronne where he coupled a female Ghost Boa with a male with a very different morph- all the offspring came out either Anery or Ghost, basically, half of the genetic makeup of the female was doubled to create an offspring... that's why they are all Anery and half of them got the chromosome with the Hypo gene.

At least in Boas, it's not always a matter of stored sperm.
 
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