Through Sex, Nature Is Telling Us Something Important

Publication date: Available online 4 February 2018 Source:Trends in Genetics Author(s): Alexey S. Kondrashov Theoretically, a variety of mechanisms can make amphimixis advantageous due to reshuffling of offspring genotypes. Recently, it has been shown experimentally that some of these mechanisms can indeed work in artificial populations. However, we still do not know which of them, if any, are relevant in nature, and the available indirect estimates seem to suggest that neither negative nor positive selection in natural populations is strong enough to provide evolutionary protection for obligate amphimixis. Thus, progress in understanding the evolution of amphimixis will depend on direct measurements of the strength of natural selection.

Source: Trends in Genetics - February 5, 2018 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Source Type: research