Search research articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Videos

Diversification in sexual and asexual organisms.

Timothy G Barraclough¹, C William Birky, Austin Burt

¹Department of Biological Sciences and NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, United Kingdom. t.barraclough@imperial.ac.uk

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution

|October 25, 2003

Summary

Sexual reproduction

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Engineering resilient gene drives for sustainable malaria control by predicting, testing and overcoming target site resistance in Anopheles gambiae.

PLoS biology·2026

Same author

Genome mining and phylogenomics reveal diverse biosynthetic gene clusters in desert Actinobacteria.

Microbial genomics·2026

Same author

Accessory regions and horizontal gene transfer shape the evolution of clonal Colletotrichum nymphaeae infecting strawberry.

The New phytologist·2026

Same author

On the use of generative models for demographic inference in malaria vectors from genomic data.

G3 (Bethesda, Md.)·2026

Same author

Variance partitioning reveals contrasting random effect contributions to the density and species composition of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes in western Burkina Faso.

Parasites & vectors·2026

Same author

Sex distorter male drive for resistance-resilient population control of the human malaria vector Anopheles gambiae.

Nature communications·2026

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Genetics

Background:

Sexual reproduction's role in species diversity is debated.
Empirical evidence is scarce due to theoretical and practical challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare diversification patterns in sexual versus asexual organisms using genealogical theory.
To investigate the influence of reproduction mode on species diversification.

Main Methods:

Utilized genealogical theory to model diversification.
Compared genotypic and morphological clustering in sexual and asexual lineages.

Main Results:

Asexual organisms are predicted to show discrete clusters similar to sexual organisms.
In some scenarios, asexuals may exhibit stronger clustering than sexuals.
Faster adaptive change in sexuals could drive greater diversification.

Conclusions:

Reproduction mode significantly influences diversification patterns.
Further quantitative studies comparing sexual and asexual taxa are necessary.
Understanding sex's macroevolutionary consequences requires more research.

Related Experiment Videos