Multidimensional Epistasis and the Advantage of Sex

Abstract

Kondrashov and Kondrashov (2001) suggest that there is usually a disadvantage for sex in systems with multidimensional epistasis. They define systems of 'unidimensional epistasis' to be those where the fitness of a genotype is a function of the number of mutations it carries, and in contrast describe a system where the fitness of a genotype is a function of the numbers of mutations in two (or more) disjoint subsets of loci creating 'multidimensional epistasis'. In an example landscape an asexual population evolves fit genotypes about twice as fast as a sexual one. Here we examine other landscapes with multidimensional epistasis and find cases where an asexual population evolves fit genotypes 20 and 180 times slower than a sexual population