Sexual Selection and Maintenance of Sex: Evidence from Comparisons of Rates of Genomic Accumulation of Mutations and Divergence of Sex-Related Genes in Sexual and Hermaphroditic Species of Caenorhabditis

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the persistence of dioecy despite the reproductive advantages conferred to hermaphrodites, including greater efficiency at purging deleterious mutations in the former. Dioecy can benefit from both mutation purging and accelerated evolution by bringing together beneficial mutations in the same individual via recombination and shuffling of genotypes. In addition, mathematical treatment has shown …