Centre for Adaptation to a Changing Environment, IBZ, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Centre of Ecology, Evolution and Biogeochemistry, EAWAG Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2017 Dec 19;372(1736). doi: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0279.
Recombination, the process by which DNA strands are broken and repaired, producing new combinations of alleles, occurs in nearly all multicellular organisms and has important implications for many evolutionary processes. The effects of recombination can be , as it can facilitate adaptation, but also when it breaks apart beneficial combinations of alleles, and recombination is highly between taxa, species, individuals and across the genome. Understanding how and why recombination rate varies is a major challenge in biology. Most theoretical and empirical work has been devoted to understanding the role of recombination in the evolution of sex-comparing between sexual and asexual species or populations. How recombination rate evolves and what impact this has on evolutionary processes within sexually reproducing organisms has received much less attention. This Theme Issue focusses on how and why recombination rate varies in sexual species, and aims to coalesce knowledge of the molecular mechanisms governing recombination with our understanding of the evolutionary processes driving variation in recombination within and between species. By integrating these fields, we can identify important knowledge gaps and areas for future research, and pave the way for a more comprehensive understanding of how and why recombination rate varies.
重组，即 DNA 链断裂和修复的过程，产生等位基因的新组合，几乎发生在所有多细胞生物中，对许多进化过程都有重要影响。重组的影响是复杂的，因为它可以促进适应，但也会带来破坏有益等位基因组合的风险，而且重组在分类群、物种、个体和整个基因组之间高度可变。了解重组率如何以及为何变化是生物学中的一个主要挑战。大多数理论和实证工作都致力于理解重组在有性和无性物种或种群之间的性比较进化中的作用。重组率如何进化以及这对有性生殖生物内部的进化过程有何影响，这方面的研究相对较少。本期特刊重点关注有性物种中重组率的变化方式和原因，并旨在将控制重组的分子机制的知识与我们对驱动物种内和种间重组变异的进化过程的理解结合起来。通过整合这些领域，我们可以确定重要的知识空白和未来研究的领域，并为更全面地理解重组率的变化方式和原因铺平道路。
