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Sex releases the speed limit on evolution

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  • Nick Colegrave

    (University of Edinburgh)

Abstract

Explaining the evolutionary maintenance of sex remains a key problem in evolutionary biology1,2,3. One potential benefit of sex is that it may allow a more rapid adaptive response when environmental conditions change, by increasing the efficiency with which selection can fix beneficial mutations4,5,6,7. Here I show that sex can increase the rate of adaptation in the facultatively sexual single-celled chlorophyte Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, but that the benefits of sex depend crucially on the size of the population that is adapting: sex has a marked effect in large populations but little effect in small populations. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the benefits of sex in a novel environment, including stochastic effects in small populations, clonal interference and epistasis between beneficial alleles. These results indicate that clonal interference is important in this system.

Suggested Citation

  • Nick Colegrave, 2002. "Sex releases the speed limit on evolution," Nature, Nature, vol. 420(6916), pages 664-666, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:420:y:2002:i:6916:d:10.1038_nature01191
    DOI: 10.1038/nature01191
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    Cited by:

    1. dos Santos, Renato Vieira & da Silva, Linaena Méricy, 2015. "Discreteness induced extinction," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 438(C), pages 17-25.
    2. Alexander Feigel & Avraham Englander & Assaf Engel, 2009. "Sex Is Always Well Worth Its Two-Fold Cost," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(7), pages 1-6, July.
    3. Holmström, Kerstin & Jensen, Henrik Jeldtoft, 2004. "Who runs fastest in an adaptive landscape: sexual versus asexual reproduction," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 337(1), pages 185-195.
    4. Berríos-Caro, Ernesto & Galla, Tobias & Constable, George W.A., 2021. "Switching environments, synchronous sex, and the evolution of mating types," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 28-42.

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