Evolution, Ecology and Genetics, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2012 Mar;27(3):172-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2011.09.016. Epub 2011 Oct 21.
Explaining the evolution of sex is challenging for biologists. A 'twofold cost' compared with asexual reproduction is often quoted. If a cost of this magnitude exists, the benefits of sex must be large for it to have evolved and be maintained. Focusing on benefits can be misleading, as this sidelines important questions about the cost of sex: what is the source of the twofold cost: males, genome dilution or both? Does the cost deviate from twofold? What other factors make sex costly? How should the costs of sex be empirically measured? The total cost of sex and how it varies in different contexts must be known to determine the benefits needed to account for the origin and maintenance of sex.
解释性别的进化对生物学家来说是具有挑战性的。通常会引用与无性繁殖相比的“双重代价”。如果存在这种巨大的代价，那么性的好处必须很大，才能进化并得以维持。关注好处可能会产生误导，因为这回避了关于性代价的重要问题：两倍代价的来源是什么：雄性、基因组稀释还是两者兼而有之？代价是否偏离两倍？还有哪些其他因素使性变得昂贵？应该如何从经验上衡量性的代价？为了确定解释性起源和维持所需的好处，必须了解性的总成本以及它在不同环境下的变化情况。
