What drives the evolution of condition-dependent recombination in diploids? Some insights from simulation modelling.

While the evolutionary advantages of non-zero recombination rates have prompted diverse theoretical explanations, the evolution of essential recombination features remains underexplored. We focused on one such feature, the condition dependence of recombination, viewed as the variation in within-generation sensitivity of recombination to external (environment) and/or internal (genotype) conditions. Limited empirical evidence for its existence comes mainly from diploids, whereas theoretical models show that it only easily evolves in haploids.

Structural relatedness via flow networks in protein sequence space.

A novel approach for evaluation of sequence relatedness via a network over the sequence space is presented. This relatedness is quantified by graph theoretical techniques. The graph is perceived as a flow network, and flow algorithms are applied.