The maintenance of sex by parasitism and mutation accumulation under epistatic fitness functions

Abstract

The mutation accumulation hypothesis predicts that sex functions to reduce the population mutational toad, while the Red Queen hypothesis holds that sex is adaptive as a defense against coevolving pathogens. We used computer simulations to examine the combined and separate effects of selection against deleterious mutations and host-parasite coevolution on the spread of a clone into an outcrossing sexual population. The results suggest that the two processes operating simultaneously may select for sex independent of the exact shape of the function that maps mutation number onto host fitness.