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Scientific dogma has long asserted that females are born with their entire lifetime’s supply of eggs, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. New findings by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, published online Aug. 27 in Science, suggest that in nematode worms, at least, this does not hold true. Molecular physiologist Marc Van Gilst, Ph.D., and colleagues report that during starvation, sexually mature adult worms stop ovulating and the germline component of their reproductive system – the sex cells, including mature and maturing eggs – dies off and leaves behind nothing but a few stem cells. However, once normal food conditions resume, the conserved stem cells can produce a brand new crop of sex cells, complete with youthful and fertile eggs. This turning back of the reproductive clock all takes place in tiny C. elegans soil worms that are up to15 times older than normally fed worms in their reproductive prime.

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