Losing the desire: Selection can promote obligate asexuality

Abstract

Whilst parthenogenesis has evolved multiple times from sexual invertebrate and vertebrate lineages, the drivers and consequences of the sex-asex transition remain mostly uncertain. A model by Stouthamer et al. recently published in BMC Evolutionary Biology shows a pathway by which obligate asexuality could be selected for following endosymbiont infection. © 2010 King and Hurst; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.