Sex and Molecular Evolution

The evolutionary significance of sexual reproduction is a classic problem of evolutionary biology. This talk will explain how we can model evolution by applying our understanding of genetics to processes that operate in natural populations: mutation, selection, random sampling effects, and genetic recombination. It will use this understanding to show how the absence of sexual reproduction can undermine the effectiveness of natural selection as an evolutionary force. Theoretical models help to explain observations on the relation between the properties of genes and their location in regions of the genome where sexual reproduction is effectively absent.