Résumé
Key Points
One of the most enduring puzzles in evolutionary biology is why sexual reproduction, whereby the genomes of different individuals are mixed together, is so widespread.
Theoretical analyses have shown that genome mixing is a risky endeavour, and the conditions that favour the evolution of high rates of sex and recombination are often quite restrictive.
Most previous mathematical models have, however, focused on populations that are infinite in size, unstructured and isolated from other species.
By incorporating realistic complexities, including species interactions, spatial structure and genetic drift, recent studies have broadened the conditions under which high rates of sex and recombination are expected to evolve.
Sexual reproduction and recombination are ubiquitous. However, a large body of theoretical work has shown that these processes should only evolve under a restricted set of conditions. New studies indicate that this discrepancy might result from the fact that previous models have ignored important complexities that face natural populations, such as genetic drift and the spatial structure of populations.