Melatonin is a unique multifunctional molecule that mediates reproductive functions in animals. In this study, we investigated the effects of melatonin on bovine parthenogenetic and androgenetic embryonic development, oocyte maturation, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in parthenogenetic and androgenetic embryos and cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) hormone secretion with melatonin supple...

The availability of high quality resources is an important factor driving community structure and reproductive mode of animals. Parthenogenetic reproduction prevails when resources are available in excess, whereas sexuality correlates with resource shortage. We investigated the effect of resource availability on the community structure of oribatid mites in a laboratory experiment. Availability ...

The problem of the maintenance of anisogamous sex is addressed by considering the effect of fertilization on the fitness of parthenogenetic females when such fertilization yields inviable triploid progeny. We consider four types of parthenogenesis: (i) apomixis, (ii) homogametic amphimixis, (iii) heterogametic amphimixis, and (iv) homogametic automixis. Homozygous sexual populations are genetic...

Mammalian parthenogenetic embryos invariably die in mid-gestation from imprinted gene defects and placental hypoplasia. Based on chimera experiments, trophoblastic proliferation is supposed to be inhibited in the absence of a male genome. Here, we show that parthenogenetic mouse embryonic cell nuclei can be reprogrammed by serial rounds of nuclear transfer without using any genetic modification...