Biology 1001A Lecture 16: Lecture 16
25 Feb 2016
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Document Summary
Why do we have such profound differences between the two sexes. The first living things did not produce sexually, so the sexual state isn"t an ancestral trait. It is not necessary, many organisms produce through binary fission successfully. You only pass on 50% of your alleles to offspring, whereas asexual would be an exact copy (100%: diluting your genome every time you reproduce, may be a disadvantage. If you are interested in maximizing grandchildren then you are at a disadvantage. Asexually everyone is a female and can reproduce by themselves. Species that produce only asexually tend to be young. Perhaps they have a higher risk of going extinct. It is easier for helpful mutations to spread to the whole population when the population is sexual. Increases the speed at which beneficial mutations spread across a population. Sexual recombination benefits the population by increasing the speed of evolution. Rate at which disadvantageous mutations can be discarded.
