New‐age ideas about age‐old sex: separating meiosis from mating could solve a century‐old conundrum

@article{Brandeis2018NewageIA,
  title={New‐age ideas about age‐old sex: separating meiosis from mating could solve a century‐old conundrum},
  author={Michael Brandeis},
  journal={Biological Reviews},
  year={2018},
  volume={93},
  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:4764175}
}
It is proposed that the most basic role of meiosis is conserving integrity of the genome and deconstructing sex into these two distinct processes – meiosis and mating – will greatly facilitate their analysis and promote the understanding of sexual reproduction.
View on Wolters Kluwer
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
12 Citations
Background Citations
7

12 Citations

Genome Evolution of Asexual Organisms and the Paradox of Sex in Eukaryotes

This review focuses on potentially detrimental effects of asexuality on genome evolution, and compares the different genomic features, life cycles, developmental pathways, and cytological mechanisms in the major eukaryotic groups, i.e., in protists, animals, fungi, and plants.

Were eukaryotes made by sex?

It is hypothesized that the appearance of sex facilitated the merging of the endosymbiont and host genomes during early eukaryote evolution, and that its appearance might have been THE crucial step that enabled the evolution of proper eukARYotes from early endosYmbionts containing proto‐eukaryotes.

When acting as a reproductive barrier for sympatric speciation, hybrid sterility can only be primary

While WCB incompatibilities have long been observed on a microscopic scale, there is growing evidence for a role of dispersed finer DNA sequence differences.

Symposium: The evolution and biodiversity of asexual organisms

This special issue is an outcome of the Symposium “The evolution and biodiversity of asexual organisms” at the international BioSyst.EU conference held in Gothenburg, Sweden, 15–18 August 2017 and presents seven papers dealing with various aspects of apomixis research in plants.

Does the Pachytene Checkpoint, a Feature of Meiosis, Filter Out Mistakes in Double-Strand DNA Break Repair and as a side-Effect Strongly Promote Adaptive Speciation?

Synopsis This essay aims to explain two biological puzzles: why eukaryotic transcription units are composed of short segments of coding DNA interspersed with long stretches of non-coding (intron)…

Hunger for sex: Abundant, heterogeneous resources select for sexual reproduction in the field

It is shown that sexual species tended to be favoured with increasing litter amount, a measure of basal resource abundance, which is consistent with the hypothesis that sex facilitates adaptation by breaking unfavourable genetic associations, an advantage that should increase with effective population size when many loci are under selection and, thus, with resource abundance.

The relation of meiotic behaviour to hybridity, polyploidy and apomixis in the Ranunculus auricomus complex (Ranunculaceae)

Disturbed female meiosis is identified as potential elicitor of apomixis in order to rescue these plants from hybrid sterility, with diverging selective pressures on female and male sporogenesis, with only minor effects of hybridity on microsporogenesis, but fatal effects on the course of megasporogenesis.

Novel Approaches for Species Concepts and Delimitation in Polyploids and Hybrids

The turnaround of the viewpoint that sex forms species as lineages helps to overcome traditional thinking of species as “units” and is aided by the improved recognition of lineages via various novel -omics methods, by understanding meiosis functions, and by recognizing functional phenotypes by considering morphological-physiological-ecological adaptations.

Dimorphism in cryptophytes—The case of Teleaulax amphioxeia/Plagioselmis prolonga and its ecological implications

It is demonstrated that P. prolonga is the haploid form of the diploid T. amphioxeia and described the seasonal dynamics of these two life stages, which might explain the success of this species by fostering high genetic diversity and enabling endurance in adverse conditions.

The Evolutionary Establishment of Apomixis in Hybrids of the Ranunculus auricomus Complex: Developmental and Cytogenetic Studies

Results indicate that hybridization, rather than polyploidization, is the apomixis-triggering factor in synthetic Ranunculus plants, and the switch to asexual seed formation in young, diploid Ran unculus hybrids is a rescue from imminent hybrid sterility, which is assumed to be caused by disturbed female meiosis.

83 References

Constraints on the evolution of asexual reproduction

The intimate evolutionary relations between haplodiploidy and parthenogenesis as well as implications for the clade selection hypothesis of the maintenance of sexual reproduction are also discussed.

Gamete signalling underlies the evolution of mating types and their number

It is shown that isogamous gametes always interact asymmetrically throughout sex and it is argued that this asymmetry is favoured because it enhances the efficiency of the mating process.

Sex is a ubiquitous, ancient, and inherent attribute of eukaryotic life

It is speculated that eukaryotic sex likely developed as a cellular survival strategy, possibly in the context of internal reactive oxygen species stress generated by a (proto) mitochondrion, and might directly result from the very evolutionary mode by which eukARYotic cells arose.

The evolution of meiotic sex and its alternatives

This overview suggests that homologue pairing, double-strand break formation and homologous recombinational repair at prophase I are the least dispensable elements, and they are more likely optimized for repair of oxidative DNA damage rather than for recombination.

A combinational theory for maintenance of sex

It is difficult to give evidence for evolutionary advantages that would explain the predominance of meiotic sex in eukaryotes, but a combinational theory discussing evolution, maintenance and loss of sex may resolve the problem.

What do isogamous organisms teach us about sex and the two sexes?

This article asks what happens if there is a less than twofold benefit to sex, and argues that this could lead to a situation where lineages that evolve anisogamy—and thus the highest costs of sex—end up being associated with constraints that make invasion by asexual reproduction unlikely (the ‘an isogamy gateway' hypothesis).

The Evolution of Sex: a Perspective from the Fungal Kingdom

The state of the understanding of sex and its evolution in the fungal kingdom is reviewed and areas where the field has contributed and will continue to contribute to illuminating general principles and paradigms of sexual reproduction are reviewed.

Perspectives Anecdotal, Historical and Critical Commentaries on Genetics the Evolution of Meiosis from Mitosis Identifying a Key Step in the Evolution of Meiosis from Mitosis

A hypothesis of the origins of meiosis is presented that encompasses both the cytological novelties and the selective forces that might have favored them, and the conclusion is surprising: the initial function of chromosome pairing was to limit, not enhance, recombination.

Complementation, genetic conflict, and the evolution of sex and recombination.

It is shown that asexual reproduction has a short-term disadvantage due to the loss of complementation of recessive deleterious mutations, which can overcome the 2-fold cost of meiosis in one or few generations.

The molecular basis of the evolution of sex.

...