In hermaphrodites, oocyte development, maturation, and ovulation occur in an assembly-line fashion with an ovulation rate of about once per 45 minutes while sperm are present. The time an oocyte spends in diakinesis may reflect a developmental requirement for the execution of certain events and thus might not be a true 'arrest' of the cell cycle. While the events of oocyte development, maturation, and ovulation occur in a reproducible order, the dependency relationships for these events are not yet defined. Mutant analysis may aid in inferring causality. For instance, we are currently investigating mutants which appear to interfere with the somatic events of ovulation even though meiotic maturation occurs normally within the oocyte.
Nuclear position is most variable in the first oocyte produced by the arm.