[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-zoo-blob/paris-zoo-unveils-the-blob-an-organism-with-no-brain-but-720-sexes-idUSKBN1WV2AD](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-zoo-blob/paris-zoo-unveils-the-blob-an-organism-with-no-brain-but-720-sexes-idUSKBN1WV2AD)
In: Biology
We only have 2 types of chromosomes and 2 “slots” for them, that is XX and XY. That gives us 2!/2 possibilities.
This blob probably has 6 types of chromosomes that cannot be repeated. Let’s call them a, b,c, d, e and f. So, one possibility is adfbce. Another, bfeacd. In the end we have 6! = 720 possibilities.
OBS: I’m not sure about the way the chromosomes for thr blob works. It was just an example that works with the number given.
If I’m not mistaken it means that it has 720 variations of it’s sex chromosomes unlike humans which have 2.
For example humans primarily have XX and XY. This organism could have many different variations than that.
This organism doesn’t have sex organs, it reproduces by directly combining DNA with another cell. There are three locations where the DNA can break and recombine. At those locations, there are genes that have different alleles, one has 16 possibilities, one has 15, and one has 3…16 x 3 x 15 = 720. Some allele combinations are compatible with one another, some are not, which is why we can thing of each combination as a sex.
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