ArticleNature2010
Higher rates of sex evolve in spatially heterogeneous environments.
Article in Nature, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 148 citations in OpenAlex.
- Wanted: A population genetic theory of biological noise regulation.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Developing a crop- wild-reservoir pathogen system to understand pathogen evolution and emergence.eLife · 2025Article
- Ecological diversification in sexual and asexual lineages.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Genetic variation in released gametes produces genetic diversity in the offspring of the broadcast spawning coral Acropora tenuis.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The Resilience of Polar Collembola (Springtails) in a Changing Climate.Current research in insect science · 2022Review
- Recombination mapping of the Brazilian stingless bee Frieseomelitta varia confirms high recombination rates in social hymenoptera.BMC genomics · 2021Article
- The Evolution of Sex is Tempered by Costly Hybridization in Boechera (Rock Cress).The Journal of heredity · 2021Article
- Gene swamping alters evolution during range expansions in the protistBiology letters · 2020Article
- The Genome of the Human PathogenmBio · 2018Article
- Turnover in local parasite populations temporarily favors host outcrossing over self-fertilization during experimental evolution.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
- General environmental heterogeneity as the explanation of sexuality? Comparative study shows that ancient asexual taxa are associated with both biotically and abiotically homogeneous environments.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
- Adaptation in response to environmental unpredictability.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Experimental Evolution withGenetics · 2017Review
- Higher rates of sex evolve during adaptation to more complex environments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2017Article
- Article
- Diapause and maintenance of facultative sexual reproductive strategies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- What does the geography of parthenogenesis teach us about sex?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- Habitat heterogeneity favors asexual reproduction in natural populations of grassthrips.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2016Article
- A female-biased sex ratio reduces the twofold cost of sex.Scientific reports · 2016Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The evolution and maintenance of sexual reproduction has puzzled biologists for decades. Although this field is rich in hypotheses, experimental evidence is scarce. Some important experiments have demonstrated differences in evolutionary rates between sexual and asexual populations; other experiments have documented evolutionary changes in phenomena related to genetic mixing, such as recombination and selfing. However, direct experiments of the evolution of sex within populations are extremely rare (but see ref. 12). Here we use the rotifer, Brachionus calyciflorus, which is capable of both sexual and asexual reproduction, to test recent theory predicting that there is more opportunity for sex to evolve in spatially heterogeneous environments. Replicated experimental populations of rotifers were maintained in homogeneous environments, composed of either high- or low-quality food habitats, or in heterogeneous environments that consisted of a mix of the two habitats. For populations maintained in either type of homogeneous environment, the rate of sex evolves rapidly towards zero. In contrast, higher rates of sex evolve in populations experiencing spatially heterogeneous environments. The data indicate that the higher level of sex observed under heterogeneity is not due to sex being less costly or selection against sex being less efficient; rather sex is sufficiently advantageous in heterogeneous environments to overwhelm its inherent costs. Counter to some alternative theories for the evolution of sex, there is no evidence that genetic drift plays any part in the evolution of sex in these populations.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.