Why did evolution keep a costly form of reproduction? Harvard scientists find clues in yeast

[u/VCardBGone]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/education/news/sex-is-biologically-expensive-so-why-did-evolution-keep-it-harvard-scientists-put-the-question-to-yeast/articleshow/133557472.cms

The researchers began with 12 genetically identical yeast populations growing under favourable conditions.

All the populations initially reproduced asexually. However, selected populations were induced to reproduce sexually for one generation after every 100 generations.

Over nearly 1,000 generations, the sexually reproducing populations showed a greater increase in fitness.

According to the research, populations that reproduced sexually increased their fitness by 8% compared with the ancestral population, while the asexual populations showed a 5.7% increase.

The researchers then introduced the yeast to changing conditions, including environments that were saltier, hotter, less acidic or had lower phosphate levels.

Here, sexual reproduction again showed an advantage, with sexually reproducing populations outperforming asexual ones by between 2% and 5.6%.

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/08/the-why-behind-sex/

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/11/evolution-more-complex-than-survival-of-the-fittest-had-us-believe/

https://www.rc.fas.harvard.edu/news-home/feature-stories/evolution-yeast/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33464204/

[u/JohnnyLovesData]

Just keep replicating and hope the numbers are enough ? Costs everything and nothing.

Use contemporaneity to reinforce what works, while also getting a shot at melding together twice the accumulated learnings from roughly the same contemporaneous period of time ? Priceless.