Sex decreases the pleiotropic costs of local adaptation by purging hitchhiking load.

Shreyas V Pai, Parris T Humphrey, Camille Simonet, Katya Kosheleva, Anurag Limdi, Michael M Desai

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Science (New York, N.Y.), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Evolutionary Simulations Reveal Role for Genomic Recombination in the Evolution of Gene Regulatory Network Complexity and Robustness.Genome biology and evolution · 2026
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Shreyas V Pai *Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID 0009-0007-9540-3943

Parris T Humphrey *Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-5743-1854

Camille SimonetDepartment of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-1812-1794

Katya KoshelevaDepartment of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-8158-898X

Anurag LimdiDepartment of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4891-8254

Michael M DesaiDepartment of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9581-1150

Funding

Microbial Adaptation and the Statistics of Epistasis and PleiotropyR01GM104239 · NIGMS · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · PI DESAI, MICHAEL M · 2013 to 2025

$4.5M

NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM104239

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms that maintain sex despite its direct costs is a long-standing challenge. Previous work has shown that sexual recombination can accelerate adaptation, in part by separating beneficial mutations from deleterious hitchhikers. However, earlier studies focused on effects of sex in a constant environment. We show that recombination provides an advantage during changing conditions in promoting the evolution of generalist phenotypes by reducing pleiotropic costs caused by local adaptation. Using laboratory evolution in

Indexed as

Adaptation, PhysiologicalBiological EvolutionGenetic PleiotropyRecombination, GeneticReproduction, AsexualSaccharomyces cerevisiaeSexGenetic FitnessMutationPhenotypeSaccharomyces cerevisiae ProteinsSelection, GeneticSaccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins

Identifiers

PMID42024759

DOI10.1126/science.aec9708

PMCPMC13264481

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.