Association for Biology Laboratory Education

Using C. elegans to Test the Adaptive Significance of Sexual Outcrossing
    



Advances in Biology Laboratory Education, 2020, Volume 41

Sehoya Cotner

https://doi.org/10.37590/able.v41.art6

Abstract

Few laboratory exercises focus on the adaptive significance of sexual reproduction. The investigation described here involves students in a test of one of the predictions of The Red Queen hypothesis – namely, that sexual outcrossing is superior to self-fertilization. Specifically, students challenge two populations of the nematode C. elegans – one obligately outcrossing and one obligately selfing – with pathogenic Serratia marcescens.

Keywords:  evolution of sex, sexual outcrossing, Red Queen, C. elegans

University of Ottawa (2019)