Evolutionary route to diploidy and sex.
By using a bit-string model of evolution, we find a successful route to diploidy and sex in simple organisms. Allowing the sexually reproducing diploid individuals to also perform mitosis, as they do in a haploid-diploid cycle, leads to the complete takeover of the population by sexual diploids. This mechanism is so robust that even the accidental conversion and pairing of only two diploids give rise to a sexual population.
Tüzel
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Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences and Letters, Istanbul Technical University, 80626, Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey.erzan@ituu.edu.tr
Sevim
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Erzan
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D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002455:Cell Division; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008938:Mitosis / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D012737:Sex Factors