TY - JOUR T1 - Does Sex Speed Up Evolutionary Rate and Increase Biodiversity? A1 - Melián, Carlos J. A1 - Alonso, David A1 - Allesina, Stefano A1 - Condit, Richard S. A1 - Etienne, Rampal S. Y1 - 2012/03/08 N2 - Author Summary The role of sex in driving genetic variation and the speed at which new species emerge has been debated for over a century. There is experimental and theoretical evidence that sex increases genetic variation and the speed at which new species emerge, although evidence that sex reduces variation and slows the formation of new species also exists. Surprisingly, given the link between sex and genetic variation, little work has been done on the impact of sex on biodiversity. In the present theoretical study we show that a faster evolutionary rate can decrease the abundance of newly formed species and thus decrease long-term biodiversity. This leads to the paradoxical result that sexual reproduction can increase genetic variation but reduce species diversity. These results suggest that reducing the rate of appearance of genetic variation and the speed at which new species emerge may increase biodiversity in the long-term. This unexpected link between reproductive mode, the speed of evolution and biodiversity suggests that a high evolutionary rate may not be required to yield a large number of species in natural ecosystems. JF - PLOS Computational Biology JA - PLOS Computational Biology VL - 8 IS - 3 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002414 SP - e1002414 EP - PB - Public Library of Science M3 - doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002414 ER -