Sex solves Haldane’s dilemma

The cumulative reproductive cost of multi-locus selection has been considered to be a potentially limiting factor on the rate of adaptive evolution. In this paper, we show that Haldane's arguments for the accumulation of reproductive costs over multiple loci are valid only for a clonally reproducing population of asexual genotypes. We show that a sexually reproducing population avoids this accumulation of costs. Thus, sex removes a perceived reproductive constraint on the rate of adaptive evolution. The significance of our results is twofold. First, the results demonstrate that adaptation based on multiple genes-such as selection acting on the standing genetic variation-does not entail a huge reproductive cost as suggested by Haldane, provided of course that the population is reproducing sexually. Second, this reduction in the cost of natural selection provides a simple biological explanation for the advantage of sex. Specifically, Haldane's calculations illustrate the evolutionary disadvantage of asexuality; sexual reproduction frees the population from this disadvantage.