Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
5 years ago

Ancient asexual mites defy evolutionary dead end, escape mutational meltdown.

Nature Communications
Effective purifying selection in ancient asexual oribatid mites
Alexander Brandt, Ina Schaefer, Julien Glanz, Tanja Schwander, Mark Maraun, Stefan Scheu, Jens Bast

Paper Summary

Ancient asexual oribatid mites have strong purifying selection that helps prevent the accumulation of harmful mutations, even without sexual reproduction. This means that these mites can avoid genetic deterioration over time, contrary to what was previously believed about asexual reproduction in animals.

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