News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in J... by lliamander on Thursday March 10, 2022 @02:32PM (#30631351)
That brings up the question of what one means by "sex". As I understand it, sex is primarily about the kinds of gametes one produces - either large gametes (female) or small gametes (male). The genetic implementation of that is in some sense a secondary detail, since it varies between organisms. Reptiles, for instance, only have XX chromosomes and sex is determined by environment (or something like that).

I would expect that in this case the mushroom still only has two types of gametes, and hence only two sexes. There's just an added bit of complexity determining whether a particular pair of gametes can produce a new organism.

Re:Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in J... by empthought on Thursday March 10, 2022 @04:08PM (#30632455)
No, they're isogamous and have no sexes. They do have mating types.
Re:Algae with three sexes that mate in pairs identified in J... by lliamander on Thursday March 10, 2022 @06:46PM (#30634222)
Ah, that makes sense as well. But the idea of thousands of sexes seemed suspect to me.