The evolution of sex is one of the most fascinating problems in biology. I have written two books on the topic.
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Bell, G. 1982. The Masterpiece of Nature: the Evolution and Genetics of Sexuality. Croom Helm, London; University of California Press, Berkeley.
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Bell, G. 1989. Sex and Death in Protozoa: the History of an Obsession. Cambridge University Press.
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The prevailing theory to explain the maintenance of sex is that it accelerates adaptation by increasing genetic variation. Our experiments with the green alga Chlamydomonas support this view.
A single sexual episode depresses mean fitness but increases variation, so fitness recovers through selection |
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Renaut, S., Replansky, T., Heppleston, A. & Bell, G. 2006. The ecology and genetics of fitness in Chlamydomonas. XIII. The fitness of long-term sexual and asexual populations in benign environments. Evolution 60: 2272-2279.
- Kaltz, O. & Bell, G. 2002. The ecology and genetics of fitness in Chlamydomonas. XII. Repeated sexual episodes increase rates of adaptation to novel environments. Evolution 56: 1743-1753.
- Colegrave N., Kaltz O. & Bell G. 2002. The ecology and genetics of fitness in Chlamydomonas. VIII. The dynamics of adaptation to novel environments after a single episode of sex. Evolution 56: 14-21.
- Zeyl, C. & G. Bell. 1997. The advantage of sex in evolving yeast populations. Nature 388: 465-468.
We also have a long-term experiment to investigate how gender evolves in response to the environment in which mating takes place.
- Bell G. 2005. Experimental sexual selection in Chlamydomonas. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 18: 722-734.
Sexual selection increases zygote production by at least an order of magnitude.
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