Origins of Eukaryotic Sexual Reproduction
- 1Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130
- 2Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710
- Correspondence: ursula{at}biology2.wustl.edu; heitm001{at}duke.edu
Abstract
Sexual reproduction is a nearly universal feature of eukaryotic organisms. Given its ubiquity and shared core features, sex is thought to have arisen once in the last common ancestor to all eukaryotes. Using the perspectives of molecular genetics and cell biology, we consider documented and hypothetical scenarios for the instantiation and evolution of meiosis, fertilization, sex determination, uniparental inheritance of organelle genomes, and speciation.
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