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Imagine three populations of desert plants. One survives by growing longer roots and storing more water. Another has roots that can extract water from dryer soi
by PepeGomez 11y ago
Imagine three populations of desert plants. One survives by growing longer roots and storing more water. Another has roots that can extract water from dryer soil. The third is adapted by breathing during the night and losing less water.
It's obvious how a sexual plant that is able to obtain the beneficial mutations from the other two populations would gain a major and immediate advanage.
- jballanc 11y agoWe all agree that sexual reproduction is advantageous over a long time scale. The question is what about a short time scale. Even with selective breeding, it'll be at least two (and more likely 3-5) generations before you could get all three advantageous traits in the same plant. With random partnering as would happen in the wild it could easily take an order of magnitude longer. This paper presents a hypothesis that explains how sexual reproduction could be more advantageous than asexual reproduction after one generation. This is what makes it novel and new.
- PepeGomez 11y agoHow more short term would you want it to be? The trait doesn't have to be advantageous every single generation in order to spread. It's two generation with or without selective breeding. The first generation will have individuals with three or four beneficial mutations, the second will have some with five. (assuming the traits are dominant)