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.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

The advantages of recombination

Many organisms have sexual recombination, yet its advantages are not fully understood. A new study of the fruit fly Drosophila miranda shows that recombination is essential for removing deleterious mutations from the genome and for allowing beneficial mutations to be incorporated.

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

Access options

Buy this article

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

Figure 1: The Y chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster.

Photo courtesy of Sergio Pimpinelli

References

  1. Rice, W.R. Nat. Rev. Genet. 3, 241–251 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Steinemann, M., Steinemann, S. & Lottspeich, F. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90, 5737–5741 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Bachtrog, D. Nat. Genet. 34, 215–219 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Lucchesi, J.C. Science 202, 711–716 (1978).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Felsenstein, J. Genetics 78, 737–756 (1974).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Bachtrog, D. & Charlesworth, B. Nature 416, 323–326 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Maynard Smith, J. & Haigh, J. Genet. Res. 23, 23–35 (1974).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Charlesworth, B. & Charlesworth, D. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 355, 1563–1572 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Aitken, R.J. & Graves, J.A.M. Nature 415, 963–963 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Gray, M.W. Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 9, 678–687 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Martin, W. & Herrmann, R.G. Plant Physiol. 118, 9–17 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Carvalho, A.B. Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 12, 664–668 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Rice, W.R. Bioscience 46, 331–343 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Orr, H.A. & Kim, Y. Genetics 150, 1693–1698 (1998).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Kurek, R., Reugels, A.M., Lammermann, U. & Bunemann, H. Genetica 109, 113–123 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Carvalho, A. The advantages of recombination. Nat Genet 34, 128–129 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng0603-128

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng0603-128

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