Studying the Sex Secrets of a Snail Parasite Curtis Lively and
Jukka Jokela dive to collect snails, Potamopyrgus antipodarum,
in Lake Alexandrina, New Zealand. CREDIT: Kirsten Klappert,
Eawag/ETH-Zurich Editor's Note: ScienceLives is an occasional
series that puts scientists under the microscope to find out
what makes them tick. The series is a cooperation between the
National Science Foundation and LiveScience. According to
Indiana University evolutionary biologist Curt Lively,
scientists have long wondered why clonal (asexual) reproduction
does not replace sexual reproduction in natural populations.
Recent research by Lively and his colleagues points to parasites
as part of the answer, since the genetic variations that result
from sexual reproduction may help the organisms avoid disease.
Indiana University Bloomington and Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology biologists collaborated on the research, which was
reported in a July issue of Current Biology. The scientists'
report represents direct experimental