Simulated coevolution in a mutating ecology.
The bit-string Penna model is used to simulate the competition between an asexual parthenogenetic and a sexual population sharing the same environment. A newborn of either population can mutate and become a part of the other with some probability. In a stable environment the sexual population soon dies out. When an infestation by rapidly mutation genetically coupled parasites is introduced, however, sexual reproduction prevails, as predicted by the so-called Red Queen hypothesis for the evolution of sex.
Sá Martins
J S
JS
Colorado Center for Chaos and Complexity, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309, USA.
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D008954:Models, Biological; D010271:Parasites / Q000235:genetics; D010312:Parthenogenesis; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012098:Reproduction