ArticleNature communications2017
Effective purifying selection in ancient asexual oribatid mites.
Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mutation accumulation in a hybrid parthenogenetic vertebrate.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Stepwise emergence of recombination suppression precedes fissiparous asexuality in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The Use of dN/dS Ratios to Investigate Types of Selection in Related Sexual and Asexual Lineages.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Review
- Article
- Whole-genome relaxed selection and molecular constraints in Triplophysa under adapted Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Chromosome-scale genome dynamics reveal signatures of independent haplotype evolution in the ancient asexual miteScience advances · 2025Article
- Effects of mode of reproduction on genetic polymorphism and divergence in wild yams (Dioscoreaceae:Plant diversity · 2025Article
- Rethinking asexuality: the enigmatic case of functional sexual genes in Lepraria (Stereocaulaceae).BMC genomics · 2024Article
- Parallel loss of sexual reproduction in field populations of a brown alga sheds light on the mechanisms underlying the emergence of asexuality.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Apomixis and the paradox of sex in plants.Annals of botany · 2024Review
- Parthenogenetic Stick Insects Exhibit Signatures of Preservation in the Molecular Architecture of Male Reproduction.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Article
- Parthenogenomics: Insights on mutation rates and nucleotide diversity in parthenogeneticEcology and evolution · 2024Article
- Article
- Evolutionary history of an Alpine Archaeognath (Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Novel genome sequence of Chinese cavefish (Triplophysa rosa) reveals pervasive relaxation of natural selection in cavefish genomes.Molecular ecology · 2022Article
- Mitochondrial Genomes of Two AsexualInsects · 2022Article
- Invasions of an obligate asexual daphnid species support the nearly neutral theory.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Transitions to asexuality and evolution of gene expression inProceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Haplotype divergence supports long-term asexuality in the oribatid miteProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
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7 authors.
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Abstract
Sex is beneficial in the long term because it can prevent mutational meltdown through increased effectiveness of selection. This idea is supported by empirical evidence of deleterious mutation accumulation in species with a recent transition to asexuality. Here, we study the effectiveness of purifying selection in oribatid mites which have lost sex millions of years ago and diversified into different families and species while reproducing asexually. We compare the accumulation of deleterious nonsynonymous and synonymous mutations between three asexual and three sexual lineages using transcriptome data. Contrasting studies of young asexual lineages, we find evidence for strong purifying selection that is more effective in asexual as compared to sexual oribatid mite lineages. Our results suggest that large populations likely sustain effective purifying selection and facilitate the escape of mutational meltdown in the absence of sex. Thus, sex per se is not a prerequisite for the long-term persistence of animal lineages.Asexual reproduction is thought to be an evolutionary dead end in eukaryotes because deleterious mutations will not be purged effectively. Here, Brandt and colleagues show that anciently asexual oribatid mites in fact have reduced accumulation of deleterious mutations compared to their sexual relatives.
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