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From: eddy@boulder.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: C. elegans
Message-ID: <1044@sigi.Colorado.EDU>
Date: Wed, 6-May-87 12:51:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: sigi.1044
Posted: Wed May  6 12:51:23 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 8-May-87 02:01:09 EDT
References: <1055@thebes.UUCP> <9576@duke.cs.duke.edu> <1640@zeus.TEK.COM> <872@bgsuvax.UUCP>
Sender: news@sigi.Colorado.EDU
Reply-To: eddy@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Sean Eddy)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 28
Summary: is not female

In article <872@bgsuvax.UUCP> gagen@bgsuvax.UUCP (kathleen gagen) writes:
>In article <1640@zeus.TEK.COM>, dant@tekla.tek.com.tek.com (Dan Tilque;1893;92-789;LP=A;60/C) writes:
>> 
>> One aspect of parthenogenic reproduction which seems to be common in all
>> of the species mentioned so far, is that the parthenogenisis seems to
>> be stimulated by mating behavior or sperm from the males of a related
>
>I can think of at least two exceptions to this statment:
>(1) In Cenorhabditis elegans (I hope that I spelled that right), parthenogenic
>females do not require the presence of male stimulation to produce offspring.
>(C. elegans is a self-fertilizing roundworm.)
>
>(2) The behavior of the artificially produced Drosophila strain "lazy girl"
>is altered in that the "lazy girls" repell male advances.

C. elegans is not female (except in some sex determination mutants).
Instead, it is a hermaphrodite...C. elegans hermaphrodites produce
both oocytes and sperm. I don't think, then, that C. elegans
is a legitimate exception; in fact, I would not call C. elegans
reproduction parthenogenesis at all.

- Sean Eddy
- Dept. of Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder; Boulder, CO 80309
- 
- "You can't possibly be a scientist if you mind people thinking
- that you're a fool."
-				-from So Long and Thanks for All the Fish