CAS AN 263 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Red Queen Hypothesis, Asexual Reproduction, Mutation Rate
26 Jul 2020
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Asexual reproduction happens by budding, so it"s easier 100% of dna passed down. Cost of meiosis: can only pass on half of your genes. Cost of recombination: must combine male and female genomes without making major mistakes. Cost of mating: energy spent on finding and competing for male, vulnerable to predation, stds. Ratchet hypothesis: with asexual reproduction, organisms keep accumulating genetic mutations, so there"s no way to get rid of them. But with sexual reproduction, there"s a chance to eliminate those bad mutations. With sexual reproduction, if there are too many bad mutations then your fetus just won"t survive so two people with bad mutations can"t have a baby. Prediction: the higher the mutation rate, the greater advantage of sexual reproduction. Evidence: higher mutation rate in sexually reproducing organisms. Group selectionist (selection happens at individual level, not species level); and what"s the benefit to the individual: allows for beneficial recombination.
