[Vital cycle, mitotic capacity, and genomic restoration]

We define a theoretical model for clonal reproduction and we describe how the accumulation of mutations induces an ineluctable decline of the "mitotic capacity". During the vital cycle of organisms, meïosis and fecundation may have the function of making up for this fall. This should allow us to understand the temporal structure or the sexualisation of the vital cycle as well as some peculiarities of the spatial structure of the genome.