title: Recombination dramatically speeds up evolution of finite populations.
abstract: We study the role of recombination, in the form of bacterial transformation, in speeding up Darwinian evolution. This is done by adding a new process to a previously studied Markov model of evolution on a smooth fitness landscape; this new process allows alleles to be exchanged with those in the surrounding medium. Our results, both numerical and analytic, indicate that, for a wide range of intermediate population sizes, recombination dramatically speeds up the rate of evolutionary advance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, IL52900 Israel.
authors.forename: Elisheva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Kessler
authors.forename: Herbert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Levine
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics; D005075:Biological Evolution; D008957:Models, Genetic; D011995:Recombination, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D014169:Transformation, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics