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Does sex speed up evolutionary rate and increase biodiversity?
Carlos J Melián1, David Alonso, Stefano Allesina
1National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America. carlos.melian@eawag.ch
Plos Computational Biology
|March 14, 2012
Summary
Sexual reproduction can paradoxically decrease biodiversity by increasing the rate of species formation, leading to lower species abundance. This challenges the assumption that faster evolution always yields greater diversity.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Genetics
- Ecology
Background:
- Sex is generally thought to increase evolutionary rates through mechanisms like recombination and purging deleterious mutations.
- However, evidence also suggests sex can slow evolution due to costs and constraints on variation.
- The relationship between reproductive mode, evolutionary rate, and species diversity remains poorly understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the connection between mutation, speciation, and biodiversity in sexual versus asexual populations.
- To model the ecological and evolutionary dynamics based on DNA sequence change.
Main Methods:
- Development of a spatially explicit model.
- Simulation of ecological and evolutionary dynamics.
- Analysis of DNA sequence change in sexual and asexual populations.
Main Results:
- Faster speciation rates, driven by sex, can lead to decreased abundance of new species.
- This reduction in abundance can result in lower overall long-term biodiversity in sexual populations compared to asexual ones.
- Reproductive mode significantly influences the interplay between mutation, evolutionary rate, speciation, and biodiversity.
Conclusions:
- Sex can reduce biodiversity relative to asexual reproduction due to a higher rate of species production but lower abundance of each new species.
- A high evolutionary rate is not necessarily a prerequisite for high biodiversity.
- Understanding reproductive strategies is crucial for explaining patterns of species diversity.
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