General environmental heterogeneity as the explanation of sexuality? Comparative study shows that ancient asexual taxa are associated with both biotically and abiotically homogeneous environments.

ABSTRACT: Ecological theories of sexual reproduction assume that sexuality is advantageous in certain conditions, for example, in biotically or abiotically more heterogeneous environments. Such theories thus could be tested by comparative studies. However, the published results of these studies are rather unconvincing. Here, we present the results of a new comparative study based exclusively on the ancient asexual clades. The association with biotically or abiotically homogeneous environments in these asexual clades was compared with the same association in their sister, or closely related, sexual clades. Using the conservative definition of ancient asexuals (i.e., age >1 million years), we found eight pairs of taxa of sexual and asexual species, six differing in the heterogeneity of their inhabited

SUBMITTER: Toman J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5773305 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature