Sex among eukaryotes is far more common than once believed
Tuesday, July 28, 2015 - 08:30
in Biology & Nature
(Phys.org)—For a long time, biologists have considered sex to be an inherent trait of multicellular life, while microbial eukaryotes were considered to be either optionally sexual or purely clonal. From this perspective, clonality in eukaryotes is seen as exceptional. However, a group of researchers Europe and Canada have recently published a paper examining this broad distinction more closely, and have suggested that it appears to stem from an improper comparison of unicellular and multicellular species.