Viral Pathogens and the Advantage of Sex in the Perennial Grass Anthoxanthum odoratum

摘要: The ubiquity of sexual reproduction among plants and animals remains one the major unresolved paradoxes modern evolutionary biology. In order for sex to be maintained in populations, must confer immediate substantial fitness benefits. Theoreticians have proposed numerous mechanisms explain how such advantages arise, but experimental data are few. well-studied population perennial grass Anthoxanthum odoratum a mown North Carolina field, offspring been found significantly higher than asexual offspring. More recent field experiments show that an aphid-transmitted virus, barley yellow dwarf (BYDV)-strain SGV, specifically transmitted by Schizaphus graminum, frequently infects progeny soon after transplantation into BYDV infection is asymptomatic Anthoxanthum, BYDV-inoculated clones planted directly had lower healthy controls.