Beetle grows ‘termite’ on back to steal food

Re:Beetle grows ‘termite’ on back to steal food by jcims on Wednesday September 06, 2023 @11:47PM (#37414535)

I’ve always had a notion that there’s some kind of gene theft with mimicry. The combinatorics of just rattling genes into existence that build a mock termite larva seem infeasible in the timescale involved.

What does the math look like? How many possible gene configurations are there that will build a mock termite on the back of a beetle? What’s the shortest random walk to get there from a beetle with no termite on its back and how does that compare with the total number of these beetles ever created in nature?

A single gene might have 4^300 configurations. Are there five genes or fifty or five hundred involved? How many of these beetles have ever been built? 10^20?

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Re:Beetle grows ‘termite’ on back to steal food by shellfishgene on Thursday September 07, 2023 @04:40AM (#37416261)

As development works in stages based on the last one, I would assume gene theft just doesn't work on a beetle genome background. You would have to change development from the egg onwards to mimic the termite, essentially turning the beetle into a termite proper.

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Re:Beetle grows ‘termite’ on back to steal food by phito on Thursday September 07, 2023 @04:48AM (#37416318)

The genome does not store a map of the final organism, so it seems unlikely.

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