(Image source: The Telegraph)
BY MEGAN FAROKHMANESH
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Sex in the name of parasite prevention? It’s more reasonable than you might think.
That’s according to researchers at the University of Indiana - who recently discovered evidence suggesting sexual reproduction started as a way to dodge infection from parasites.
BBC explains the experiment.
“The team engineered two types of worms - some that could only reproduce by having sex, and some that could only clone themselves. The researchers watched the worms gorge themselves on a lawn of a nasty bacterium... Across five different populations, worms that reproduced sexually fared well over the 20 generations, while all animals that cloned themselves died quickly.”
Put simply -- sexual reproduction allows for genetic mixing -- so different organisms have different weaknesses -- and strengths against invaders.
io9 describes the phenomenon:
“The basic logic is that, if an organism reproduces asexually, then the genetic variation of its species as a whole will slowly grind to a halt, and it becomes increasingly likely that a parasite that can kill one member of the species can wreak havoc on the entire population.”
“Cross-fertilisation helps creatures stay a step ahead in the [continuous] ‘arms race’ with parasites, which are forever evolving to try and infect them.”
But while one evolutionary biologist told the BBC the study’s findings were “really cool” -- he also noted there’s no way of knowing how this lab experiment works in the natural world.
for sure what happens in a lab experiment also happens in nature.
And the
BBC reports that scientists have observed -- in nature, organisms show a greater likelihood of sexual reproduction when more parasites are around.
“The genetic ‘arms race’ between a parasite and its host is often refered to as an example of Red Queen-style interaction - a term coined by biologist Leigh Van Valen who summoned the image of the constantly running Red Queen from Lewis Caroll's Through the Looking-Glass.”
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