In examining the mating rituals of roundworms, researchers uncovered a unique approach to reproduction that maximizes genetic fitness.
Sparks fly when a female nematode meets her mate in a Petri dish. Tracking him by smell, she beelines over and is pregnant within moments of physical contact. But for the hermaphroditic version of these tiny roundworms, it's a very different story. Anatomically female but capable of self-fertilizing with their own supply of sperm, hermaphrodites remain emphatically uninterested in mating -- until their sperm supply runs dry. Only then will they seek out males.
The team noted three mating behaviors among female nematodes: they track males by smell, they cease moving upon physical contact with the male, and they open their vulvas to facilitate mating."The female is a model of efficiency," Ebert says."She displays a strong drive to find a mate and, once in contact, cooperates. Within a minute of meeting a male, she's pregnant."
This mating flexibility makes evolutionary sense. From a biological fitness perspective, any animal should want to maximize its own input into the gene pool. As long as hermaphrodites can produce offspring all their own, they have no incentive to mix with males. But once they are incapable of doing so, it becomes evolutionarily strategic to mate and produce offspring with at least half of their genetic material.
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