Nobody knows why there are women and there are men?

I am, as always, blown away by the knowledge of MN's hive mind. Truly amazing on all topics.

But I can't be the only one longing for the good old days when this thread was a simpler place and contained only word salad and the rambling plagiarisms of a toddler with a keyboard, can I?

TheElementsSong has provided a much better explanation than I could

Mitochondria are like a cell's battery packs, and contain their own DNA which is quite separate from the 23 chromosomes in the cell's nucleus, so although we get our mitochondrial DNA from our mothers it is nothing to do with the X chromosome.

Mitochondrial disorders are a group of conditions (usually with a genetic cause) in which the ability of mitochondria to generate energy for the cell to use is impaired. MItochondrial disorders tend to particularly affect cells in the body which need a lot of energy to function properly, like nerve cells and muscle cells.

[quote Cagedbirdsinging]@Awiltu , please will you tell me more about mitochondria ? How is it they are only inherited from the mother on her X chromosome , and why ? I believe the mitochondrial bodies are responsible for energy distribution and have heard them referred to as the cell's 'suicide body'. There's also a thing called Mitochondrial Disease I think .
Sorry for the derail , everyone , this is a fascinating thread on so many levels .[/quote]
I'm not @Awiltu but I am a molecular biologist. Somewhat oversimplified explanation (I have skimmed over a lot of details, some exceptions, also I do not specialise in the finer details of cell biology, etc):

Mitochondria are not a thing on a chromosome.

Organelles are specialised structures inside cells. Mitochondria are organelles which generate the energy that cells need, in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate).

Mitochondria are really interesting organelles because they may have originated as endosymbionts - the hypothesis being that they were independent prokaryotic cells which got engulfed by another cell (like being eaten) but somehow survived and formed this win-win relationship with their host cell. Mitochondria have their own genome, a circular DNA chromosome bearing many similarities to bacterial circular genomes. They reproduce by binary fission, like bacteria, and do so on their own timetable independently of the mitosis of their host cell.

Both ova and spermatozoa contain their own mitochondria. Each sperm cell has a kind of "power bank" of mitochondria in the midpiece between the head and the tail. However, it is generally thought that when fertilisation takes place and the sperm fuses with the ovum to deliver its payload of chromosomes, the paternal mitochondria are deliberately destroyed by the ovum: therefore, only maternal mitochondria are passed on to the offspring.

@Awiltu , please will you tell me more about mitochondria ? How is it they are only inherited from the mother on her X chromosome , and why ? I believe the mitochondrial bodies are responsible for energy distribution and have heard them referred to as the cell's 'suicide body'. There's also a thing called Mitochondrial Disease I think .
Sorry for the derail , everyone , this is a fascinating thread on so many levels .

Dunno about all this but I have a male friend who once asked me: "What is the point of men"!

I'm also in the conFUSEed BOX.

I don't know why some
people are women and some
people are men

WHY GOD WHY

Nobody knows why there are boxes. Everywhere.

I hate to throw a cat among the pidgeons but

If it's a pigeon-identifying cat that wouldn't cause any problems at all. And anyway, no-one knows why some animals are cats and why some are pigeons and anyone who says they do know is a liar.

I am too tired to ask pp about fuse boxes.

Nobody knows why there are fuse boxes

Old fashioned fuse wire could be used to make models of X and Y chromosomes if required.
What a faff fuse boxes used to be.

And? The implications of this in your view are?

I hate to throw a cat among the pidgeons but... some people describe the Y chromosome as a deformed X.

There is some reasoning to this as the Y is much smaller and does indeed look like its a small falformed X.

Oh! I was so so carefree last night… but today, I simply cannot be arsed!

And back to the sensible discussion; yes, as I recall, asexual reproduction is fast, good for rapid colonisation. It also magnifies the effects of any genetic mutation, as all the offspring have it. So if it's advantageous, great, if not that line dies out.

The alternate generation organisms, likes mosses and ferns, combine the fast / slow, and mix for longevity / don't bother mixing and just get some babies out there, methods.

I think you are dead right TheElementsSong

Honestly, I get the impression that some visitors think because this place is called "Mumsnet," that the posters here are all silly frilly girly things who pushed their brains out of their bodies along with babies and placentas.

Possibly he identifies as a lesbian...

Have you been at the thesaurus again Mother?

My first thought on hearing twa literally women was that stallions who are gelded are not transmares.

I'm not sure anyone even needs to do gcse biology tbh. Just live in the real world. Animals know what sex each other are, and that includes humans.

I saw this and thought, "what an absolute dipshit"

This is why I forced my son to do GCSE Biology. I swear everyone between that ages of 20 and 35 needs to be forcibly sent to Saturday school to do or redo Biology, and be forced to pay attention this time, instead of giving BJs behind the bike shed it whatever this person was doing instead.

Yes, plants can also do both.
Algae can do sexual and asexual reproducation as well, and make diploid spores and haploid gametes, I can't quite remember the details, I actually need to read up on it for work.