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Transmissible cancer and the evolution of sex

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posted on 2023-05-21, 13:04 authored by Thomas, F, Madsen, T, Giraudeau, M, Misse, D, Rodrigo Hamede RossRodrigo Hamede Ross, Vincze, O, Renaud, F, Roche, B, Ujvari, B
The origin and subsequent maintenance of sex and recombination are among the most elusive and controversial problems in evolutionary biology. Here, we propose a novel hypothesis, suggesting that sexual reproduction not only evolved to reduce the negative effects of the accumulation of deleterious mutations and processes associated with pathogen and/or parasite resistance but also to prevent invasion by transmissible selfish neoplastic cheater cells, henceforth referred to as transmissible cancer cells. Sexual reproduction permits systematic change of the multicellular organism's genotype and hence an enhanced detection of transmissible cancer cells by immune system. Given the omnipresence of oncogenic processes in multicellular organisms, together with the fact that transmissible cancer cells can have dramatic effects on their host fitness, our scenario suggests that the benefits of sex and concomitant recombination will be large and permanent, explaining why sexual reproduction is, despite its costs, the dominant mode of reproduction among eukaryotes.

History

Publication title

PLoS Biology

Volume

17

Issue

6

Article number

3000275

Number

3000275

Pagination

1-9

ISSN

1544-9173

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

Public Library of Science

Place of publication

United States

Rights statement

© 2019 Thomas et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences

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