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Related Experiment Videos

Selective advantage for sexual reproduction.

Emmanuel Tannenbaum1

  • 1Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva 84105, Israel. emanuelt@bgu.ac.il

Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
|August 16, 2006
PubMed
Summary

Sexual reproduction can outcompete asexual reproduction when the cost of finding a mate is zero. However, increased costs and mutation rates can diminish this advantage, favoring sexual reproduction in large populations with low replication rates.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Theoretical biology
  • Population genetics

Background:

  • The quasispecies model is a fundamental framework for studying viral evolution and the impact of mutation rates.
  • Sexual reproduction introduces genetic variation through recombination, but often incurs a fitness cost.
  • Understanding the conditions under which sexual reproduction is advantageous is crucial for evolutionary theory.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a simplified model of sexual reproduction within the quasispecies formalism.
  • To investigate the influence of the cost of mate-seeking on the selective advantage of sexual reproduction.
  • To determine the population size and replication rate conditions favoring sexual over asexual reproduction.

Main Methods:

  • A simplified diploid model was developed, with fitness determined by genomic similarity to a master sequence.

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  • A cost parameter, tau(seek), representing the time for haploid cells to find a mate, was incorporated.
  • Mathematical analysis was used to compare the competitive success of sexual and asexual reproduction strategies.

    • Main Results:

    • Sexual reproduction dominates asexual reproduction when the mate-seeking cost (tau(seek)) is zero.
    • As tau(seek) increases, sexual reproduction becomes advantageous only at higher mutation rates.
    • The selective advantage of sexual reproduction disappears above a critical cost threshold.
    • Sexual reproduction is favored in large populations with low replication rates due to reduced mate-seeking time.

    Conclusions:

    • The advantage of sexual reproduction is contingent on the balance between recombination benefits and the costs of mate-seeking.
    • Low replication rates and large population sizes create an environment where sexual reproduction can be evolutionarily stable.
    • The findings challenge the notion that sexual reproduction is inherently advantageous in small populations, highlighting the role of replication rates and population density.