emigh@ecsvax.UUCP (03/02/84)
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On 21 February, Clement Markert gave a seminar at North Carolina
State University entitled, "The dispensable male." Markert is on
leave at NCSU from Yale University this year.
The main thrust of Markert's talk was to describe the current state
of research in parthenogenesis (development of individuals from
nonfertilized eggs) in mammals. While current research in nowhere near
this stage at this time, there have been a couple of recent developments
that I find of interest. The first is that there are strains of mice
whose eggs can be induced to (or spontaneously) form multicellular
stages of development. To date, no generally accepted experiments
have shown that these parthenogenetically produced embryos are capable
of surviving to term. It appears that there is *something* that the
sperm brings (or induces the egg or mother to produce) that is
necessary to the development of the embryo. The title of the talk
comes from that fact that such parthenogenetic mammals will be
females, thus eliminating the need for males altogther (maybe for this
reason this note should be in net.women.only).
The second development is that Markert has been able to get human
sperm to fertilize mouse eggs. The embryos were allowed to develop to
the eight-cell stage before they were destroyed. Markert is
developing this technique to test for male sterility in humans.
Just thought you might be interested.
--Ted H. Emigh--
Departments of Genetics and Statistics, NCSU, Raleigh, NC
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