Evolutionary Advantage, Recombination, and Adaptationin Experimental Yeast Populations

大多数常见的植物和动物都是通过性别繁殖的，雄性和雌性父母结合它们的基因来生育后代。然而，对于其中的原因仍然没有明确的解释。性是一种低效的基因传播方式：你的基因只有一半会遗传给你的后代，而如果你克隆了自己，你的后代会携带你所有的基因。此外，在性交过程中发生的基因重组可能会破坏已经很好的基因组合。大多数关于性的假设都认为，在某种程度上，产生基因多样化的后代会更好。用酵母进行的实验将检验其中的一些预测。酵母是这些测试的理想选择，因为性别是可选的，所以在其他方面相同的有性和无性群体可以被允许适应有无性别。除了有助于我们理解生物学的一个基本特征外，这个项目还可能阐明一些有争议的替代有性生殖的新技术的后果，比如克隆。通过消除性别，克隆可能会对克隆生物体的谱系产生未知的长期影响。该项目还将为研究生和本科生提供参与进化研究的绝佳机会，直接观察它的发生，并将其理解为日常过程

Most familiar plants and animals reproduce by sex, with male and female parents combining their genes to produce offspring. Yet there is still no clear explanation for why. Sex is an inefficient way to transmit genes: only half of your genes end up in your offspring, while if you cloned yourself, your offspring would carry all your genes. Also, the reshuffling of genes that occurs during sex can break up gene combinations that already work well together. Most hypotheses about sex propose that it is somehow better to produce genetically diverse offspring. Experiments with yeast will test some of these predictions. Yeast are ideal for these tests because sex is optional, so otherwise identical sexual and asexual populations can be allowed to adapt with and without sex. Apart from contributing to our understanding of a basic feature of biology, this project may illuminate some of the consequences of controversial new technological alternatives to sexual reproduction, such as cloning. By eliminating sex, cloning may have unknown long-term effects on the lineage of cloned organisms. The project will also provide excellent opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to participate in the study of evolution, to observe it directly as it occurs, and to understand it as an everyday process