A Hypothesis for the Evolution of Sex

Jan, Naeem; Stauffer, Dietrich; Moseley, L. L.

doi:10.1078/1431-7613-00013

Cited by 10 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Why then did sex evolve? [1,2] Jan, Stauffer and Moseley have proposed [3] a small environment (small population) with asexual one-celled organisms, (which we will denote as "bacteria" from now on) in which deleterious mutations are driving some into extinction. It is postulated that these soon to be extinct bacteria may indulge in sexual reproduction as a last resort, to give rise to offspring that are better suited to the environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing a Hypothesis for the Evolution of Sex

Örçal

Tüzel

Sevi̇m

et al. 2000

Int. J. Mod. Phys. C

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An asexual set of primitive bacteria is simulated with a bit-string Penna model with a Fermi function for survival. A recent hypothesis by Jan, Stauffer and Moseley on the evolution of sex from asexual cells as a strategy for trying to escape the effects of deleterious mutations is checked. This strategy is found to provide a successful scenario for the evolution of a stable macroscopic sexual population.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing a Hypothesis for the Evolution of Sex

Örçal

Tüzel

Sevi̇m

et al. 2000

Int. J. Mod. Phys. C

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“…They engage in sex when the going gets tough, that is, when the number of their expressed deleterious mutations exceeds a certain number. This success seems to vindicate the hypothesis of JSM (8), which states that sex could have been a mechanism of last resort when simple organisms were faced with extinction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1) adopted here (8)(9)(10)14) extrapolates for finite temperatures (smaller values of ␤) between highly synergistic (step function) and independent (exponential) survival probabilities (23) as a function of m. A recent study by Peck and Waxman (24) indicates that competition for limited resources can lead to synergy between successive mutations, leading to truncation or step function-like survival probabilities, which they also find favors sexual populations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Evolutionary route to diploidy and sex

Tüzel

Sevi̇m²,

Erzan³

2001

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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By using a bit-string model of evolution, we find a successful route to diploidy and sex in simple organisms. Allowing the sexually reproducing diploid individuals to also perform mitosis, as they do in a haploid-diploid cycle, leads to the complete takeover of the population by sexual diploids. This mechanism is so robust that even the accidental conversion and pairing of only two diploids give rise to a sexual population.evolution ͉ sexual reproduction ͉ haploid-diploid cycle

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“…Many organisms thought to be exclusively asexual also reproduce sexually (Maynard-Smith 1998). Continuous refinement of this magnificent engineering results in an unresolved problem, a missing link to sexual fertilization (Redfield 1999, Jan et al 2000. The contribution of akaryotic genomes and membranes in the evolution from two pro-karyotes to one eu-karyote (Margulis et al 2000) is evident, with each gamete sharing common descent with extant microbial species in two moneric domains: oocyte to eu-bacteria (since eukaryotes have eubacterial membranes), and sperm to archea (Walther et al 1999).…”

Section: Interlocking Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%