Paternal inheritance in parthenogenetic forms of the planarian Schmidtea polychroa

A number of parthenogenetic organisms appear to have survived for extended periods in spite of the clonal inheritance factor that usually increases the risk of the extinction of the clonal population. One reason for this could be that parthenogens sometimes reproduce through sex-like processes and to better understand the mechanism involved a study of the sex-like processes in the planarian flatworm 'Schmidtea (Dugesia) polychroa was undertaken.