SEX IS FOR SISTERS - INTRAGENOMIC RECOMBINATION AND HOMOLOGY-DEPENDENT MUTATION AS SOURCES OF EVOLUTIONARY VARIATION

Sex and recombination generate variation via processes that depend on an underlying complementarity between participants. Sex between DNA se gments depends on their sequences having enough in common. Viewed in t his way, sex does not depend on genes that originate in separate cells . Sex in the single genome uses many of the same mechanisms as interge nomic sex but has not been properly appreciated as a source of variati on or as a selectable process. Mutation is the generation of new seque nces rather than the novel grouping of pre-existing alleles. Mechanism s of mutation that depend on pre-existing sequence similarities in the haploid genome are a source of variation with significant and special characteristics.