ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2015
Does the avoidance of sexual costs increase fitness in asexual invaders?
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Origin and impacts of ploidy variation in the coral Pocillopora acuta in Hawai'i.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- Ecological diversification in sexual and asexual lineages.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Polyploidization of Indotyphlops braminus: evidence from isoform-sequencing.BMC genomic data · 2024Article
- Rapid turnover of a pea aphid superclone mediated by thermal endurance in central Chile.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Sex ratio in the mother's environment affects offspring population dynamics: maternal effects on population regulation.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Article
- Enhanced heterozygosity from male meiotic chromosome chains is superseded by hybrid female asexuality in termites.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Latitudinal trend in the reproductive mode of the pea aphidEcology and evolution · 2020Article
- Gene Function Rather than Reproductive Mode Drives the Evolution of RNA Helicases in Sexual and Apomictic Boechera.Genome biology and evolution · 2020Article
- Asexual reproduction changes predator population dynamics in a life predator-prey system.Population ecology · 2019Article
- Whole-Genome Sequence Data Uncover Widespread Heterothallism in the Largest Group of Lichen-Forming Fungi.Genome biology and evolution · 2019Article
- Adaptations to different habitats in sexual and asexual populations of parasitoid wasps: a meta-analysis.PeerJ · 2017Article
- What does the geography of parthenogenesis teach us about sex?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- Diapause and maintenance of facultative sexual reproductive strategies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- What do isogamous organisms teach us about sex and the two sexes?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- In the light of evolution IX: Clonal reproduction: Alternatives to sex.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2015Article
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1 author.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The high prevalence of sexual reproduction is considered a paradox mainly for two reasons. First, asexuals should enjoy various growth benefits because they seemingly rid themselves of the many inefficiencies of sexual reproduction-the so-called costs of sex. Second, there seems to be no lack of asexual origins because losses of sexual reproduction have been described in almost every larger eukaryotic taxon. Current attempts to resolve this paradox concentrate on a few hypotheses that provide universal benefits that would compensate for these costs and give sexual reproduction a net advantage. However, are new asexual lineages really those powerful invaders that could quickly displace their sexual ancestors? Research on the costs of sex indicates that sex is often stabilized by highly lineage-specific mechanisms. Two main categories can be distinguished. First are beneficial traits that evolved within a particular species and became tightly associated with sex (e.g., a mating system that involves sexual selection, or a sexual diapausing stage that allows survival through harsh periods). If such traits are absent in asexuals, simple growth efficiency considerations will not capture the fitness benefits gained by skipping sexual reproduction. Second, lineage-specific factors might prevent asexuals from reaching their full potential (e.g., dependence on fertilization in sperm-dependent parthenogens). Such observations suggest that the costs of sex are highly variable and often lower than theoretical considerations suggest. This has implications for the magnitude of universal benefits required to resolve the paradox of sex.
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