Thursday, 14 March 2019

In this nematode species, males are needed for reproduction—but not their genes

In 1949, the young biologist Victor Nigon described the reproduction of various species of nematodes, small roundworms that live in the soil in its doctoral thesis. These include Mesorhabditis belari, whose rare male specimens are required for reproduction, even though the genetic material found in sperm is rarely used by eggs. The resulting embryo produces a female, who is a clone of its mother.

* This article was originally published here