Q40 - Hypotheses for the Evolution of Sex
The evolution of sexual reproduction has remained in certain aspects a puzzle which is yet to be fully pieced back together. Over the years many hypotheses have been proposed to explain this phenomenon.
Using the information and data, determine which of the statements are true or which are false.
A. The effect of sexual reproduction on the association between alleles is expected to improve the fitness of co-adapted genes.
B. Given that the majority of mutations are deleterious, sex is expected to counter the loss of mutation-free individuals in small populations.
C. Avoiding inbreeding in sexually-reproducing organisms is expected to be advantageous when deleterious mutations are co-dominant.
D. One would expect a greater proportion of sexually reproducing species in stable regions, as compared to unstable regions.
Question reproduced from IBO 2018, Theoretical Paper 1, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - attributed to the International Biology Olympiad. Open the full exam PDF · Community solutions (unofficial)