Article ID: CBB858578556

Sprengel-Darwin Principle of Cross Fertilisation and the Queen of Problems in Evolutionary Biology (2010)

unapi

Three years after the publication of the Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin wrote in a journal article that the causes why sexual reproduction occurs in animals and plants are unknown. Moreover, he mentioned that parthenogenesis (virgin birth) should be a more efficient mode of reproduction. Here I summarize evidence indicating that bi-parental (sexual) reproduction, which occurs in the vast majority of eukaryotic organisms, and out-crossing (cross-fertilisation) evolved and are maintained to provide biological variation for directional natural selection to act upon, notably in the presence of pathogens and parasites. Although these principles go back to the work of Christian K. Sprengel, Darwin, and August Weismann, the cytological basis of these processes became evident only after the development of the chromosome theory of heredity in 1903.Weismann‘s hypothesis, i.e., the postulate that sex functions to produce variable offspring, is based on the processes of meiotic recombination during gametogenesis, the production of sperm and eggs. Hence, males, which do not produce progeny, exist to create variability, which is important under unfavourable environmental conditions and in the presence of pathogens. Although most a-sexual organisms that reproduce parthenogenetically are ―evolutionary dead ends‖, bdelloid rotifers, tiny, ancient animals, diversified in freshwater habitats without carrying the ―cost of sex‖, i.e., the production of males. The exclusively female bdelloid rotifers reproduce via parthenogenesis, but can escape from deadly fungal parasites by a unique ―drying up and blowing away‖-strategy. Hence, the advantages of the inefficient mode of sexual reproduction, the ―queen of problems in evolutionary biology‖, are obvious, although there are still many open questions to be answered.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB858578556/

Similar Citations

Article Ambrose, C. T.; (2010)
Darwin's Historical Sketch---An American Predecessor: C. S. Rafinesque (/isis/citation/CBB001031431/)

Chapter Newman, Stuart A.; Bhat, Ramray; (2011)
Lamarck's Dangerous Idea (/isis/citation/CBB001500094/)

Chapter Pereira Martins, Lilian A.-C.; (2000)
Alguns aspectos da teoria de evolução de August Weismann (/isis/citation/CBB000101387/)

Article Hans-Jörg Rheinberger; (2015)
Re-discovering Mendel: The Case of Carl Correns (/isis/citation/CBB876750608/)

Article Delgado Torres, Isabel; (2003)
Los estudios morfológicos en la teoría de la determinación cromosómica del sexo: 1880--1912 (/isis/citation/CBB000350195/)

Book Wright, David; (2011)
Downs: The History of a Disability (/isis/citation/CBB001200871/)

Book Delgado Echeverría, Isabel; (2007)
El descubrimiento de los cromosomas sexuales. Un hito en la historia de la Biología (/isis/citation/CBB001022345/)

Article Hull, David L.; (2011)
Defining Darwinism (/isis/citation/CBB001023980/)

Article Giuliano Pancaldi; (2019)
Darwin’s Technology of Life (/isis/citation/CBB081095005/)

Article Roll-Hansen, Nils; (2014)
Johannsen's Criticism of the Chromosome Theory (/isis/citation/CBB001552680/)

Article Pereira Martins, Lilian Al-Chueyr; (2011)
O papel do núcleo na herança (1870--1900), um estudo de caso: A teoria dos idioblastos de O. Hertwig (/isis/citation/CBB001212032/)

Article Archibald, J. David; (2012)
Darwin's Two Competing Phylogenetic Trees: Marsupials as Ancestors or Sister Taxa? (/isis/citation/CBB001251350/)

Article Friedman, William E.; Diggle, Pamela K.; (2011)
Charles Darwin and the Origins of Plant Evolutionary Developmental Biology (/isis/citation/CBB001320692/)

Chapter Sober, Elliott; (2005)
Comparative Psychology Meets Evolutionary Biology: Morgan's Canon and Cladistic Parsimony (/isis/citation/CBB000772880/)

Article Tavernier, Johan De; (2014)
Morality and Nature: Evolutionary Challenges to Christian Ethics (/isis/citation/CBB001201354/)

Book Caporael, Linnda R.; Griesemer, James R.; Wimsatt, William C.; (2014)
Developing Scaffolds in Evolution, Culture, and Cognition (/isis/citation/CBB001510224/)

Authors & Contributors
Fasolo, Aldo
Lovisolo, Davide
MacCord, Katherine
Pereira Martins, Lilian Al-Chueyr
Bhat, Ramray
Wright, David
Concepts
Evolutionary developmental biology
Chromosomes
Evolution
Biology
Darwinism
Heredity
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
21st century
20th century, early
18th century
Places
Germany
Great Britain
United States
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment