Sexual vs. asexual reproduction: scientists fin...( g at whether or not wearing seat bel...)

In the experiments, conducted over a year and a half, the researchers were able to track individual mutations over time. They found that with sexual reproduction, the gene for red eye color rose rapidly toward "fixation" or establishment in the population. The proportion of the red eye color gets higher and higher over time until it is fixed at 100 percent. With the asexual populations the mutation began to accumulate, but eventually stopped in most cases.

"We knew that there were advantages to sexual diversity, but it was not clear why," said Rice. "Now we have evidence that the rate of progressive evolution (the accumulation of beneficial mutations) is faster in sexual populations. We simulated that and saw that the sexual population gets the good gene faster. This is the first time that this has been consistently demonstrated."
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Contact: Gail Brown
gail.brown@ia.ucsb.edu
805-893-7220
University of California - Santa Barbara
18-Oct-2001