Alien DNA - the question of genders

The Queen is most likely a hermaphrodite since she lays eggs constantly without needing ummm... outside fecundation... and she doesn't necessarily need different organs for a different type of egg, she may be able to trigger a mutation in the egg or so, either consciously or instinctively, we can't know. But this is a theory that i would prefer.

I'm going with the opinion stated above. Having a queen being able to reproduce asexualy makes the aliens a much more serious problem. Since queens seem to be made very easily, it would make them much harder to wipe out if only one was needed, instead of efffectivly sterilizing her by killing all of the males.

Predatoress: You know what, you're right. I guess there's never been any source that states how a Queen is born. One would assume the same way a Drone is but then how is the egg designated to be the Queen? I don't think it's determined by which victim was facehugged like my theory states. Cause when you think about it, what kind of creature when facehugged would produce the Queen. A dog produces a four-legged Runner, while a Predator produces a predalien with dreadlocks. So what accounts for the triangular (lack of better term) head and the 2 extra arms?

But since there's also no evidence of the Queen ever needing to mate to produce the egg, I guess that probably means gender doesn't matter for Aliens. The designation of Queen was because of the behaviour and purpose was very similar to insect queens (bees, ants etc), not because it was of female gender.

As for the Queens "triangular" head and the two tiny appendeges (arms), I believe that the "crown" is a symbol of her status in the Hive. Pretorians have a similar crown on their head as well, but lack the ability to command a hive while a queen is present. Also the head could single her out from the rest simply as a genetic trait, just as the Drone's smooth head, the Warrior's ridged head, and the Predalien's overall appearence. As for the dog/runner alien, I have no details since I never saw a clear image of it.

As for the two tiny arms, I think it has to do with the fact that she is a pure-blooded strain, keeping some genetic trait that previous generations of queens before her had passed on. Just like human traits originate from a great-grandparent to a child. But this is just my assumptions.

As for the DNA and the sex of the aliens, it probably has to do with some genetic trait that allows an alien to develope into a Queen if the need arrises.

i agree with DW theory

Even the animals considered as hermaphrodites, needs to mate at least once in their lifetime (before laying eggs) to produce more durable offspring or the breeding type (meaning reproducing genders). But either way that mutation theory is as good, since we haven't seen alien genders, or the pre-Queen state, except in alien 3 if I remember correctly, but we haven't seen the actual time before the Queen developes the eggsack.

Many insects have an organ for storaging sperm (and I'm sorry for bringing this up, I know here's kids and I prolly get every alien fan jumping on m enow lol) and I consider it's quite possible the Queen would have same kind of system, so it would the the "female's choise" as we call in biology, to decide through the circumstances when to produce another Queen.

It's been said that in times of crisis, a grey, or lone drone, would take a hostage and turn it into a specific egg through substance injection with the tail. That egg in turn creates what we know as the Superfacehugger, and it's there that we can tell for sure why a Queen is so "special". For some reason, one of the eggs the Superfacehugger carries is much different and special than the others it carries and the other ones of the hive.
It doesn't happen by chance. We don't know for sure yet why, but that embryo turns into a Queen, which, for some reason, is supposedly female and never takes the personal traits of its host. However, we can't say that for sure - techically we've only seen a Queen created from a human. The Queen in AVP was most likely created by one of the ancients and the one in Resurrection was like a bad translation of english to Chinese back to english.
Queens are only created when there isn't one already in control. A Queen does not take the traits of it host so Predqueens aren't possible. And you can't have gorilla Aliens or eagle aliens or whatever - notice that, although the Dogalien DID take on the quadruped state, it just looks like a regular human alien, but on all fours, and with a much smaller head (also the tubes on its back are missing). No larger teeth, no ridiculously enlarged muscles or the need to walk on its knuckles, it just ran on all fours. Imagine a human doing that. Other than the fact that a human running on all fours looking like a dog is ridiculous, he still looks like a human.
There have been four types of Queens in the movies, only one taking on the traits of its host. The one in Aliens was a normal Queen, the one in Resurrection a human-thing, the one in AVP an Empress, and the one in Reqiuem a sick piece of shit Predalien.

Ahh there we got an expert's view of this topic, was about to ask you to comment in this one.

I havent seen any of the alien films, Only the AVP ones and Predator.
But I think that all of these theroys are right.
The queen most likly is a homathrodite, As she does nothing but produce eggs on her own and does not need to mate.
However I think the eggs can trigger a mutation which I think is caused over different factors in it's surroundings. If you remember alien eggs are almost see through, So what if the egg acts like the spores and sensitive patches aliens use to identify each other(How aliens identify each over from different hives ect).
An egg can detect if any aliens are around, If they are friendly or not, If there is a queen pressent for the hive and most importantly if a portental host is around. The egg decides when to open and release the facehugger or if there is no hive at all, Triggers the mutation that turns the egg into a royal cacoon and produces a superfacehugger to make a queen. So eggs can produce normal facehuggers or the egg can cacoon them selves and become a royal cacoon producing a superfacehugger.
It is also clear that normal facehuggers will take genetic traits from there host, Resulting in runners and pred aliens.
Superfacehuggers do not take genetic traits and develop into queens and praetorians.
Superfacehuggers have been developed to allow the creation of stronger and more dominante aliens, While normal facehuggers will produce smaller, Weaker aliens that will take the orders of the more dominante aliens.
This two way breed of the fachugger results in a perfectly balanced hive, With the more aggressive aliens dominating it and the weaker trans breeds working underneath them. This is how a hive is built and run.

Well I think I've got the alien genetics sorted,
What do you guys think?
Just remember that I don't research genetics and am not an expert plus I havent seen all the films and Havent seen all the alien types, There are still things I'm not sure about so this is sort of a guess.

Wait. You haven't seen any of the Alien movies?

...

What the hell are you waiting for?

OKEY DOKEY i have read tons of stuff about this and long story short its like bee
1. queen bee
2. worker

basicaly this is kinda difrent in bees when the queen dies a baby queen takes its place. but in aliens its difrent, when the queen lays eggs it lays a special one witch when the queen dies it evolves into the queen. yet you cant tell the difrent? usualy the bigger drone. i hope you understand.

thats a theory mine is thair is no gender. when queen dies a drone becomes queen like i said and they lay eggs. no gender

If I think about it for a minute, There are no aliens with genders.
The alien don't have any genders or sexorgans , Except the queen is a homathrodite and tecnically both male and female sex organs.
So the answer to the actual question 'Alien DNA - The question of genders' is, No the aliens do not have genders, But the queen has male and female sex organs which allows her to reproduce asexually and allows more aliens eggs to be created.
However other aliens are not developed with any sex organs and will only develop them if they cacoon them selves and become a queen.
In conclusion I think that alien do not have genders but can have sexorgans if they develop into a queen
(The sexorgans may be created by genes being activated when an alien takes on the development to become a queen, When the alien is cacooned and it's body is changing).

basicaly what i said just harder i could go into genetics but i wont. you say animals that dont need a mate need alteast to mate once NO. say that the facehugger is sperm and it has organs and chemicals that the queen can give it NOW. when it face hugs it is able to take the rest of the chemicals that have already bean used to create the host to create the alien and that also makes it take traits. thats it in a nutshel

Umm facehugger is independent form of the parasite's lifecycle so it doesn't have a gender (the only purpose for that is to find a host). But for the queen - if there aren't any genders, as you state, are every alien just a clone of the previous generations? 'Cos that is where asexual breeding leads to, and which can be observed by some plant species (Lemna minor).

If you compare aliens to bees or ants, still their queens mate. Even greenflies mate to get better and more durable offspring for the winter.

My goal for this discussion is that as a biologist I would see aliens as extremely weak species when being extra sensitive to natural selection and catastrophes if they're unable to recombinate their genes (or whatever heritability system they have). But the fact they take parts of the DNA traits from their hosts can "make it up" of this flaw.

rad my topic on it and you will understand