Theory predicts that sexual reproduction provides evolutionary advantages over asexual reproduction by reducing mutational load and increasing adaptive potential. Here, we test the latter prediction in the context of plant defences against pathogens because pathogens frequently reduce plant fitness and drive the evolution of plant defences. Specifically, we ask whether sexual evening primrose p...

Sexual reproduction is extremely widespread in spite of its presumed costs relative to asexual reproduction, indicating that it must provide significant advantages. One postulated benefit of sex and recombination is that they facilitate the purging of mildly deleterious mutations, which would accumulate in asexual lineages and contribute to their short evolutionary life span. To test this predi...

A survey of spatial and temporal variation in the frequency of electrophoretically defined genotypes in the geometrid moth Alsophila pometaria revealed a high diversity of uncommon or rare asexual genotypes and clinal distributions of two of the more common clones. There was substantial year-to-year variation in genotype frequencies in seven of eleven sites. Progeny tests have revealed that sex...

Accurate inferences on population genetics data require a sound underlying theoretical null model. Organisms alternating sexual and asexual reproduction during their life-cycle have been largely neglected in theoretical population genetic models, thus limiting the biological interpretation of population genetics parameters measured in natural populations. In this article, we derive the expectat...

Assessing the mode of reproduction of microparasites remains a difficult task because direct evidence for sexual processes is often absent and the biological covariates of sex and asex are poorly known. Species with geographically divergent modes of reproduction offer the possibility to explore some of these covariates, for example, the influence of life-history traits, mode of transmission and...

The persistence of sexual reproduction in the face of competition from asexual invaders is more likely if asexual lineages are produced infrequently or have low fitness. The generation rate and success of new asexual lineages will be influenced by the proximate mechanisms underlying transitions to asexuality. As such, characterization of these mechanisms can help explain the distribution of rep...