Evolution of sexual asymmetry

BMC Evolutionary Biology
Tamás L Czárán, Rolf F Hoekstra

Abstract

The clear dominance of two-gender sex in recent species is a notorious puzzle of evolutionary theory. It has at least two layers: besides the most fundamental and challenging question why sex exists at all, the other part of the problem is equally perplexing but much less studied. Why do most sexual organisms use a binary mating system? Even if sex confers an evolutionary advantage (through whatever genetic mechanism), why does it manifest that advantage in two, and exactly two, genders (or mating types)? Why not just one, and why not more than two? Assuming that sex carries an inherent fitness advantage over pure clonal multiplication, we attempt to give a feasible solution to the problem of the evolution of dimorphic sexual asymmetry as opposed to monomorphic symmetry by using a spatial (cellular automaton) model and its non-spatial (mean-field) approximation. Based on a comparison of the spatial model to the mean-field approximation we suggest that spatial population structure must have played a significant role in the evolution of mating types, due to the largely clonal (self-aggregated) spatial distribution of gamete types, which is plausible in aquatic habitats for physical reasons, and appears to facilitate the evolution...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jul 11, 2013·Heredity·B P S NieuwenhuisT Giraud
Aug 30, 2013·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Zena HadjivasiliouAndrew Pomiankowski
Oct 18, 2014·Molecular Human Reproduction·Jussi Lehtonen, Geoff A Parker
Jul 15, 2015·Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·Zena HadjivasiliouAndrew Pomiankowski
Sep 14, 2016·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Zena Hadjivasiliou, Andrew Pomiankowski
Apr 21, 2012·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·S BilliardT Giraud
May 8, 2018·The New Bioethics : a Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body·Nathan K Gamble, Michal Pruski
Jul 5, 2005·Journal of Theoretical Biology·Michael B Bonsall
May 13, 2010·Fungal Genetics and Biology : FG & B·M López-VillavicencioJ Dupont

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