11. Why Asexual Organisms Are on Their Last Legs

Source:

Fountain H. Why Asexual Organisms Are on Their Last Legs . The New York Times [Internet]. 2010 Feb 1 [cited 2010 Feb 10]. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/science/02obroti.html

It is known that asexual reproduction is more efficient than sexual because it occurs twice as fast. However, this leads to a lock up in the genome. There is no room for variation. The viruses that are harmful to the asexual organism are constantly evolving and changing, while the asexual organism remains the same. Paul W. Sherman and Christopher G. Wilson of Cornell University have found evidence supporting this hypothesis by studying rotifers. These organism have lasted for 30 million years and the scientist want to know how they survived so long. They found that the rotifers are capable of drying up and blowing away. The rotifers can dry up and remain in this state of anhydrobiosis for a lgon time. Using this mechanism, they can kill off lethal fungi because the fungi cannot survive in those conditions for a long period of time. The dried rotifers are also carried in the wind. When carried to others places the rotifers still managed to survive even though the fungi did not die off yet because the fungi are not good as dispersing in different environments. Rotifers use these mechanism to survive since they are not able to reproduce sexually.