The Mating System of Caenorhabditis elegans: Evolutionary Equilibrium between Self- and Cross-Fertilization in a Facultative Hermaphrodite

Abstract

A model accounts for the low mating efficiency of C. elegans males when raised with hermaphrodites in laboratory cultures and for the relative behavioral indifference of hermaphrodites to mating. The mating system of C. elegans may provide a test case for distinguishing among the several theories which attribute an evolutionary advantage to sexual reproduction.