A new study from New Zealand, which is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, lends support to the idea that "selfish" genes may have encouraged individuals to mate so they could infect other genomes.
Birds do it and bees do it, but why does so much of nature engage in sexual reproduction? Some might say because it is pleasurable, but from an evolutionary view, this aspect did not emerge until long after the process of mixing genes among individuals to produce new offspring arose.
"Selfish" or parasitic genes are those that thwart the principles of Mendel's rules of inheritance, which is the way in which traits are passed from one generation to the next.
Thanks to sexual reproduction, these selfish genes become overrepresented in offspring. Plus, they bring no benefits to their hosts; they have their own agenda.
Selfish genes have been well studied, and biologists and geneticists know a lot about the molecular processes behind their evolution.
However, what they do not know so much about is the effect they have on their hosts, which is what this new study, by researchers Paulina Giraldo-Perez and Matthew R. Goddard of the University of Auckland, investigates.
The New Zealand researchers explored the idea that since selfish genes may only spread through sex with different partners, it would be to their advantage if promiscuity among their hosts were to increase.
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