Scientists untangle the mystery of a single-celled organism's seven sexes

Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - 16:32 in Biology & Nature

Biologists have known for decades that there are up to seven sexes of the microbe known as Tetrahymena thermophila — but they didn't know exactly how those different sexes "did it." Until now.When it's time for Tetrahymena to mate, two organisms of different mating types recognize each other and get together to swap DNA. One critter may be mating type No. 1, the other may be type No. 3, and the tw...

Read the whole article on MSNBC: Science

More from MSNBC: Science

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net