Ciliate protozoa possess the remarkable ability to reproduce through both asexual and sexual means. Their distinctive sexual process involves conjugation and autogamy, and they wield a secret weapon: ...

Conjugation (or mating) of ciliates is a unique phenomenon among living beings. They have sex not for reproduction or pleasure — they seek to increase genetic variation. Scientists from St Petersburg ...

The mating process is one of the most important mechanisms for maintaining genetic variation in natural populations. The emergence of sexual reproduction turned out to be the most important ...

Originally all members of a clone are of the same mating type; hence they do not conjugate together. At very long intervals (about 2,000 culture days), a clone may undergo self-differentiation into ...

The effect of sex and recombination on reproductive fitness was measured using five wild stocks of Paramecium primaurelia. Reproductive fitness was measured by determining the total number of progeny ...