Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Evolutionary biology

Why sex is good

According to a proposal put forward many years ago, sexual reproduction makes natural selection more effective because it increases genetic variation. Experiments now verify that idea — at least in yeast.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Yeast reproduction, and Goddard and colleagues' experiments1.

References

  1. Goddard, M. R., Godfray, H. C. J. & Burt, A. Nature 434, 636–640 (2005).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Otto, S. P. & Lenormand, T. Nature Rev. Genet. 3, 252–261 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Barton, N. H. & Charlesworth, B. Science 281, 1986–1990 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Weismann, A. Die Bedeutung der sexuellen Fortpflanzung für die Selektionstheorie (Fischer, Jena, 1886).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Weismann, A. The Evolution Theory (Arnold, London, 1904).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Williams, G. C. Sex and Evolution (Princeton Univ. Press, 1975).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Maynard Smith, J. The Evolution of Sex (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1978).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Kondrashov, A. S. J. Hered. 84, 372–387 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Rice, W. R. Nature Rev. Genet. 3, 241–251 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hoekstra, R. Why sex is good. Nature 434, 571–573 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/434571a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/434571a

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing