Journal
BIOESSAYS
Volume 36, Issue 11, Pages 1091-1101Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/bies.201400045
Keywords
algae; alternation of generations; auto-polyploidy; chiasmata; embryophytes; meiosis; syngamy
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Funding
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Bonn, Germany)
- College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University
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Biologists have long theorized about the evolution of life cycles, meiosis, and sexual reproduction. We revisit these topics and propose that the fundamental difference between life cycles is where and when multicellularity is expressed. We develop a scenario to explain the evolutionary transition from the life cycle of a unicellular organism to one in which multicellularity is expressed in either the haploid or diploid phase, or both. We propose further that meiosis might have evolved as a mechanism to correct for spontaneous whole-genome duplication (auto-polyploidy) and thus before the evolution of sexual reproduction sensu stricto (i.e. the formation of a diploid zygote via the fusion of haploid gametes) in the major eukaryotic clades. In addition, we propose, as others have, that sexual reproduction, which predominates in all eukaryotic clades, has many different advantages among which is that it produces variability among offspring and thus reduces sibling competition.
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