Hadany Lilach, Otto Sarah P
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA.
Genetics. 2007 Jul;176(3):1713-27. doi: 10.1534/genetics.107.074203. Epub 2007 May 4.
Facultatively sexual organisms often engage in sex more often when in poor condition. We show that such condition-dependent sex carries evolutionary advantages and can explain the evolution of sexual reproduction even when sex entails high costs. Specifically, we show that alleles promoting individuals of low fitness to have sex more often than individuals of high fitness spread through a population. Such alleles are more likely to segregate out of bad genetic backgrounds and onto good genetic backgrounds, where they tend to remain. This "abandon-ship" mechanism provides a plausible model for the evolution and maintenance of facultative sex.
兼性有性生物通常在状况不佳时更频繁地进行有性生殖。我们表明,这种依赖于状况的有性生殖具有进化优势,并且即使有性生殖成本高昂,也能解释有性生殖的进化。具体而言,我们表明,促进低适应性个体比高适应性个体更频繁进行有性生殖的等位基因会在种群中扩散。这类等位基因更有可能从不良遗传背景中分离出来,转移到良好的遗传背景上,并倾向于在那里留存。这种“弃船”机制为兼性有性生殖的进化和维持提供了一个合理的模型。