Sex as stress management in microbes

Why is sex so popular? The question of why so many organisms reproduce sexually has mystified evolutionary biologists since before Darwin, who wrote, "The whole subject is as yet hidden in darkness." In a recent article in Genome Biology and Evolution titled "What's genetic variation got to do with it? Starvation-induced self-fertilization enhances survival in Paramecium," the authors suggest that the molecular mechanisms underlying sex and the stress response may be more tightly coupled than previously appreciated, providing a new explanation for the widespread prevalence of sex in nature.

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