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On the evolution of variation in sexual reproduction through the prism of eukaryotic microbes.
- Source :
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America [Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A] 2023 Mar 07; Vol. 120 (10), pp. e2219120120. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Mar 03. - Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Almost all eukaryotes undergo sexual reproduction to generate diversity and select for fitness in their population pools. Interestingly, the systems by which sex is defined are highly diverse and can even differ between evolutionarily closely related species. While the most commonly known form of sex determination involves males and females in animals, eukaryotic microbes can have as many as thousands of different mating types for the same species. Furthermore, some species have found alternatives to sexual reproduction and prefer to grow clonally and yet undergo infrequent facultative sexual reproduction. These organisms are mainly invertebrates and microbes, but several examples are also present among vertebrates suggesting that alternative modes of sexual reproduction evolved multiple times throughout evolution. In this review, we summarize the sex-determination modes and variants of sexual reproduction found across the eukaryotic tree of life and suggest that eukaryotic microbes provide unique opportunities to study these processes in detail. We propose that understanding variations in modes of sexual reproduction can serve as a foundation to study the evolution of sex and why and how it evolved in the first place.
- Subjects :
- Animals
Female
Male
Cell Communication
Exercise
Reproduction
Eukaryota
Eukaryotic Cells
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1091-6490
- Volume :
- 120
- Issue :
- 10
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 36867686
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2219120120