Biology 1001A Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Genetic Recombination, Sexual Dimorphism, Evolutionary Arms Race

• School: Western University
• Department: Biology
• Course: Biology 1001A
• Professor: Beth Mac Dougall- Shackleton

Document Summary

How environmental stability influences whether sexual or asexual reproduction is favored. Mutational explanations for sex involves long-term, population-level benefits. Sexual recombination speeds up the rate of getting rid of harmful mutations, and speeds up the rate of beneficial mutations in comparison to asexual populations. Stable environment: better to reproduce asexually if you have survived to reproductive age then you are doing pretty well. You already know that your genotype is successful. It makes sense to not put all of your eggs in one basket (lottery principle) Hedging your bets; more chances to have offspring that can adapt better to certain environments. Lottery principle and red queen principle as environmental (short-term) benefits of sex. In an unchanging environment, you should make many copies of the same ticket (asexual reproduction) In a changing environment, you should hedge your bets (sexual reproduction); increases chances of success. Red queen principle: (cid:862)it takes all the ru(cid:374)(cid:374)i(cid:374)g (cid:455)ou (cid:272)a(cid:374) do, to sta(cid:455) i(cid:374) the sa(cid:373)e pla(cid:272)e(cid:863)