Can male c elegans reproduce?

elegans can reproduce either by self-fertilization or by mating with males. A self-fertilizing hermaphrodite can produce around 300 offspring before sperm depletion; an outcrossed hermaphrodite supplied with plentiful virile males can produce as many as 1,400 offspring.

What does vitellogenin do?

Vitellogenin provides the major egg yolk protein that is a source of nutrients during early development of egg-laying (oviparous) vertebrates and invertebrates.

Are there male and female C. elegans?

C. elegans has two natural sexes, XO males and XX hermaphrodites. The hermaphrodites are simply self-fertile females whose only male character is the ability to make the limited number of sperm used solely for internal self-fertilization.

How are male C. elegans formed?

elegans male from the hermaphrodite arise during postembryonic development. The major male mating structures, consisting of the blunt tail with fan and rays, the hook, the spicules and proctodeum, and the thin body, form just before the last larval molt.

Is vitellogenin a hormone?

3.3 The Role of Vitellogenin as Hormone. Vitellogenin is traditionally considered to be an egg-yolk protein, but recent studies have suggested that it serves a much broader array of functions in bees.

Where is vitellogenin found?

Vitellogenins (Vtgs) are synthesized and secreted by the liver under estrogen stimulation, transported in the blood to the ovary, taken up by growing oocytes via receptor mediated endocytosis, and cleaved into their product yolk proteins, which are stored in the ooplasm.

Why are there males in C. elegans?

Our findings suggest that males are maintained in C. elegans because of the particular genetic system inherited from its dioecious ancestor and because of nonadaptive spontaneous nondisjunction of sex chromosomes, which occurs during meiosis in the hermaphrodite.

Are there female C. elegans?

What is a male worm?

Earthworms are hermaphrodites; that is, they have both male and female sexual organs. The sexual organs are located in segments 9 to 15. Earthworms have one or two pairs of testes contained within sacs.

How many neurons are in C. elegans male?

387 neurons
The C. elegans male nervous system possesses 387 neurons to the hermaphrodite’s 302. The cephalic and amphid sensory organs in the head are found in both males and hermaphrodites and display sexually dimorphic features.

How is vitellogenin made?

Vitellogenin (VTG) VTG is synthesized in the female liver as the precursor of egg yolk, but neither adult male fish nor juvenile fish produce VTG (Heppell et al., 1995). VTG production increases in male fish when exposed to exogenous estrogen.

What is vitellogenin gene?

Vitellogenins are a family of yolk proteins that are by far the most abundant among oviparous animals. In the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the 6 vitellogenins are among the most highly expressed genes in the adult hermaphrodite intestine, which produces copious yolk to provision eggs.