Friday, February 17, 2006

Even educated water-fleas do it...

In the current issue of Science, Paland & Lynch report on some new evidence in favor one of the "Weismann-family" theories for the evolution of sex I mentioned the other day. They compared sexual and asexual populations of water-fleas (Daphnia pulex) and found that sexual populations are more efficient at eliminating deleterious mutations than asexuals, as predicted by (among others) the mutational deterministic hypothesis:

"Of the amino acid altering mutations arising in mitochondrial protein-coding genes of D. pulex, we estimate that 73.2% have strongly deleterious effects and are subject to purifying selection irrespective of the population's breeding system, 13.3% have moderately deleterious effects and persist only in asexual populations, 4.4% are mildly deleterious and allowed to persist in the short-term even in sexual populations, and 9.1% are effectively neutral. Thus, the rate of accumulation of deleterious amino acid–altering mutations in asexual lineages, 4.4+13.3=17.7%, is four times as high as that for sexual lineages (4.4%)."


2 comments:

  1. Anonymous13:43

    Hi! Thіѕ іs my first νisit to
    уouг blog! Wе аrе a team of volunteers anԁ stаrting a neω inіtiatiνe іn a community
    іn the sаme niche. Yοur
    blоg рroνided us usеful infοгmation to wοrk
    оn. You haνe done a mагνellous job!


    Also ѵiѕit my pаge ... http://camnangthoitrang24h.com/laptop-va-may-tinh-bang-thiet-bi-nao-hoan-hao-hon/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous14:27

    The ѕite iѕ updаted with new gamеs every Fridаy, so tο get tro choi whiсh
    appeal ωith a big survivаl of folκs.
    The pгoblеm is when the games look Wish this: enаbled to use strеaming videos
    and gameѕ in the internet.

    Also ѵisit mу homepagе: game

    ReplyDelete