Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 19 October 2001:
Vol. 294. no. 5542, pp. 533 - 534
DOI: 10.1126/science.1066241
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Perspectives

GENETICS AND EVOLUTION:
Come Fly, and Leave the Baggage Behind

Richard E. Lenski

One question that evolutionary biologists love to ponder is why sex evolved. As Lenski explains in his provocative Perspective, there are many theories to explain the evolution of sexual recombination. Elegant experiments in the fruit fly now lend weight to one hypothesis, which proposes that sexual recombination frees beneficial mutations from the excess baggage of deleterious mutations (Rice and Chippindale).

The author is at the Center for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. E-mail: lenski{at}msu.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Sexual Cycle of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii and Virulence of Congenic a and {alpha} Isolates.
K. Nielsen, G. M. Cox, P. Wang, D. L. Toffaletti, J. R. Perfect, and J. Heitman (2003)
Infect. Immun. 71, 4831-4841
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)