Sexual selection and the evolution of obligatory sex

Lilach Hadany*, Tuvik Beker

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background. Among the long-standing conundrums of evolutionary theory, obligatory sex is one of the hardest. Current theory suggests multiple factors that might explain the benefits of sex when compared with complete asexuality, but no satisfactory explanation for the prevalence of obligatory sex in the face of facultative sexual reproduction. Results and Conclusion. We show that when sexual selection is present obligatory sex can evolve and be maintained even against facultative sex, under common scenarios of deleterious mutations and environmental changes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number245
JournalBMC Evolutionary Biology
Volume7
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Science Foundation0639990

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