The complicated sex life of the papaya is about to get even more interesting, thanks to a $3.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will fund basic research on the papaya sex chromosomes and will ...
Biotechnology
Nov 2, 2009
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0
Diane Shakes shakes her head. A trisexual arrangement is really not so different. Three sexes—male, female and hermaphrodite—are "part of the plan" for many organisms. There's even a word for it: trioecious.
Plants & Animals
Jan 18, 2018
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508
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that males of the laboratory roundworm secrete signaling molecules that significantly shorten the lifespan of the opposite sex.
Plants & Animals
Nov 28, 2013
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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 ...
Evolution
Mar 7, 2024
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116
(Phys.org)—A new University of Maryland study of worms that reproduce without a mate shows that not only have these creatures lost their mojo in the dating game of evolution, they've lost thousands of genes as a consequence.
Plants & Animals
Nov 6, 2012
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Pristionchus nematodes come in two varieties: Most species consist of typical males and females, but in several species the females have evolved the ability to produce and use their own sperm for reproduction. Scientists ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 29, 2016
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59
Choosing between two good things can be tough. When animals must decide between feeding and mating, it can get even trickier. In a discovery that might ring true even for some humans, researchers have shown that male brains ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 16, 2014
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A hitherto unknown reproductive system in a species closely related to the olive tree, Phillyrea angustifolia L., has been discovered by French researchers. This system explains the high concentration of male individuals ...
Biotechnology
Mar 30, 2010
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A genetic study of papaya sex chromosomes reveals that the hermaphrodite version of the plant, which is of most use to growers, arose as a result of human selection, most likely by the ancient Maya some 4,000 years ago.
Biotechnology
Mar 17, 2015
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62
Female sea slugs mate more frequently than required to produce offspring, despite the highly traumatic and biologically costly nature of their copulation, as reported Aug. 22 in the open access journal PLOS ONE.
Plants & Animals
Aug 22, 2012
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0
In biology, a hermaphrodite is an organism that has reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes.
Many taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrates) do not have separate sexes. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which both partners can act as the "female" or "male". For example, the great majority of pulmonate snails, opisthobranch snails and slugs are hermaphrodites. Hermaphroditism is also found in some fish species and to a lesser degree in other vertebrates. Most plants are also hermaphrodites.
Historically, the term hermaphrodite has also been used to describe ambiguous genitalia and gonadal mosaicism in individuals of gonochoristic species, especially human beings. The word hermaphrodite entered the English lexicon in the 15th century, derived from the Greek Hermaphroditos a combination of the names of the gods Hermes (male) and Aphrodite (female). Recently, the word "intersex" has come into preferred usage for humans, since the word "hermaphrodite" is considered to be misleading and stigmatizing, and "scientifically specious and clinically problematic."
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