Gene conversion empowers natural selection in a clonal fish species (opens in new tab)

Sexual reproduction is ancient and ubiquitous despite its obvious disadvantages1. Theory predicts that the reassortment of alleles that results from sex is necessary for natural selection to act effectively on individual loci; therefore, a purely clonal organism should rapidly accumulate deleterious mutations and go extinct2–4. Nevertheless, many asexual species have existed for longer than theory predicts is possible5–7, such as the Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa), a clonally reproducing fis...