Researchers mix genes from different fruit fly species to successfully alter their reproductive capabilities
A virgin birth has been induced by scientists for the first time in a breakthrough which raises hopes animals facing extinction could one day be saved.
Some species can naturally reproduce without mating but the majority need males and females to physically fertilise eggs together in order to create offspring.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge took genes from a fruit fly species able to asexually reproduce and put them into a different fruit fly species which cannot.
Some of these genetically altered flies were then able to have true virgin births, the study found. It is the first time scientists have induced such an event in an animal that does not have the natural ability to do so.