Open Collections

Hodgson, Emma E.; Otto, Sarah P.

<b>Abstract</b><br/>Why sexual reproduction has evolved to be such a widespread mode of reproduction remains a major question in evolutionary biology. While previous studies have shown that increased sex and recombination can evolve in the presence of host-parasite interactions (the “Red Queen hypothesis” for sex), many of these studies have assumed that multiple loci mediate infection versus resistance. Data suggest, however, that a major locus is typically involved in antigen presentation and recognition. Here, we explore a model where only one locus mediates host-parasite interactions, but a second locus is subject to directional selection. Even though the effects of these genes on fitness are independent, we show that increased rates of sex and recombination are favored at a modifier gene that alters the rate of genetic mixing. This result occurs because of selective interference that occurs in finite populations (the “Hill-Robertson effect”), which also favors sex. These results suggest that the Red Queen hypothesis may help to explain the evolution of sex by contributing a form of persistent selection, which interferes with directional selection at other loci and thereby favors sex and recombination.; <b>Usage notes</b><br /><div class="o-metadata__file-usage-entry"><h4 class="o-heading__level3-file-title">CodeforDryad</h4><div class="o-metadata__file-description">Zip directory containing R code and simulation results associated with paper (including supplementary figures). For details on running the simulations, see readme.txt in directory.</div><div class="o-metadata__file-name"></div></div>

Dataset

2020-06-24

This dataset is made available under a Creative Commons CC0 license with the following additional/modified terms and conditions: CC0 Waiver

https://doi.org/10.5683/SP2/KXZ50P

https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/