Why Sex? and Why Only in Pairs

Bibliographic Data

ID9706507
AuthorsMotty Perry (0000-0001-5812-2893, University of Warwick), Philip J Reny (0000-0002-8903-8675, University of Chicago), Arthur J Robson (Simon Fraser University)
Year2017
Volume127
Issue607
Pages2730-2743
Publication date2017-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Economic Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/ecoj.12364
OpenAlexW90908718
LanguageEN
References cited25

Understanding the purpose of sex is a fundamental unresolved problem in evolutionary biology. The difficulty is not that there are too few theories of sex, the difficulty is that there are too many and none stand out. To distinguish between theories, we ask: Why are there no triparental species with offspring composed of the genetic material of three individuals? A successful theory should confer an advantage to biparental sex over asexual reproduction without conferring an even greater advantage to triparental sex. Of two leading theories (red queen and mutational) we show that only one is successful in this sense. \n \n

Asexual reproduction · Biology · Evolution of sexual reproduction · Evolutionary biology · Gene · Offspring · Pregnancy · Reproduction · Evolution and Genetic Dynamics · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Genetics · Plant and animal studies

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