The Frog Which is Genetically the Three Faces of Eve

The African clawed frog doesn't live only within the genome which defines such frogs but it also carries around another for reasons scientists will be fascinated to discover.  (Science Daily:  African clawed frog genome contains 2 full sets of chromosomes from 2 extinct ancestors)

Polyploidy or possession of duplicated sets of chromosomes may be familiar to you from first year genetics but I have not previously heard of an example such as this.

Millions of years ago, one species of frog diverged into two species. Millions of years later, the two frogs became one again, but with a few extra chromosomes due to whole genome duplication.  Such is the curious case of the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, a frog whose genome contains nearly double the number of chromosomes as the related Western clawed frog, Xenopus tropicalis.

- Science Daily

Maybe the interest is, well, that's cool but when do we get to eat its legs since that's about as interesting as frogs ever get.  Here at the Rockhouse, it's intriguing to see the scientists researching things we may find supremely trivial ... except this leads them to remarkable revelations.  This part isn't the remarkable revelation but rather an unusual step toward it.

A previous direct interest in polyploidy was as it applies to marijuana since a chemical called colchicine is known to induce polyploidy and that was used with the ganja (not by me).  An effect of polyploidy is sometimes larger organisms and that was true with the ganja but there was one regrettable problem since it became deadly and would kill you.

If the same were true millennia ago with frogs, there would be no Egyptians today.  I'll leave that to hang as a slider.

Maestro, rim shot, please.