THE EVOLUTION OF RECOMBINATION IN CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS

Recombination generates under-represented genotypes by breaking down l inkage disequilibrium between genes. Recent analyses have specified th e conditions under which recombination is favored. These conditions ar e surprisingly sensitive to the form of selection and environmental ch ange. This quantification makes it possible to use empirical measureme nts of critical parameters such as the form of epistasis, the rate of mutation, and the frequency of beneficial sweeps to assess different h ypotheses for the evolution of recombination.