ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2015
Sex is a ubiquitous, ancient, and inherent attribute of eukaryotic life.
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 136 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
136 citing papers in PubMed.
- Modified meiosis in the tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris maintains heterozygosity across the genome.Genetics · 2026Article
- Molecular determinants of species-specific gamete adhesion triggering HAP2-mediated membrane fusion.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Rare sex punctuates strict asexual reproduction in the clonal raider ant,bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Evidence for Cryptic Sex in Escovopsis, a Mycoparasite in the Fungus-Growing Ant Symbiosis.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Modified meiosis in the tardigradebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Sex Determination in Sponges.Molecular reproduction and development · 2026Review
- SWI3A/B regulates the transition from vegetative to reproductive phase in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha.Plant reproduction · 2026Article
- Article
- Genomic instability and mono-parental expression mitigate genomic shock in a cross-subgenusNAR molecular medicine · 2026Article
- Parasex generates highly recombinant progeny in Candida albicans with increased virulence.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Eukaryogenesis: Did an Oxidative Crucible Result in Misleading Bioinformatic Analyses?BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Evolution, Development, and the Incoherence of Sex: A Framework for Multiple Sex Concepts.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- amh alleles on XY sex chromosomes regulate male differentiation in amphidiploid Carassius auratus.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Article
- Sodium chloride stress inhibitsmicroPublication biology · 2026Article
- Genetic and environmental control of parasexual reproduction in the pathogenicMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Review
- Host range expansion of asexual parasite can be explained by loss of adaptions in Muller's Ratchet.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Conserved genetic markers reveal widespread diatom sexual reproduction in the global ocean.Nature communications · 2025Article
- There Are Only Two Sexes and There Can Never Be More.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Eukaryogenesis From FECA to LECA: Radical Steps Along the Way.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Acytota and the evolution of complexity.European biophysics journal : EBJ · 2025Review
76 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sexual reproduction and clonality in eukaryotes are mostly seen as exclusive, the latter being rather exceptional. This view might be biased by focusing almost exclusively on metazoans. We analyze and discuss reproduction in the context of extant eukaryotic diversity, paying special attention to protists. We present results of phylogenetically extended searches for homologs of two proteins functioning in cell and nuclear fusion, respectively (HAP2 and GEX1), providing indirect evidence for these processes in several eukaryotic lineages where sex has not been observed yet. We argue that (i) the debate on the relative significance of sex and clonality in eukaryotes is confounded by not appropriately distinguishing multicellular and unicellular organisms; (ii) eukaryotic sex is extremely widespread and already present in the last eukaryotic common ancestor; and (iii) the general mode of existence of eukaryotes is best described by clonally propagating cell lines with episodic sex triggered by external or internal clues. However, important questions concern the relative longevity of true clonal species (i.e., species not able to return to sexual procreation anymore). Long-lived clonal species seem strikingly rare. We analyze their properties in the light of meiotic sex development from existing prokaryotic repair mechanisms. Based on these considerations, we speculate that eukaryotic sex likely developed as a cellular survival strategy, possibly in the context of internal reactive oxygen species stress generated by a (proto) mitochondrion. Thus, in the context of the symbiogenic model of eukaryotic origin, sex might directly result from the very evolutionary mode by which eukaryotic cells arose.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.