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Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Ablation of a Single Cell From Eight-cell Embryos of the Amphipod Crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis
Published on: March 16, 2014
Decay of female sexual behavior under parthenogenesis
Abstract:
A laboratory strain of Drosophila mercatorum has existed for 20 years without males and therefore without natural selection operating to maintain the genetic basis of female mating behavior. The females of this strain have recently experienced a genetic impairment of mating capacity. This observation exemplifies the mode of evolution of vestigial characters and supports Muller's theory that random mutation will tend to destroy the genetic basis of a character from which selection has been removed.
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