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Recombination dramatically speeds up evolution of finite populations

Elisheva Cohen·David A. Kessler·Herbert Levine
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Abstract

We study the role of recombination, as practiced by genetically-competent bacteria, in speeding up Darwinian evolution. This is done by adding a new process to a previously-studied Markov model of evolution on a smooth fitness landscape; this new process allows alleles to be exchanged with those in the surrounding medium. Our results, both numerical and analytic, indicate that for a wide range of intermediate population sizes, recombination dramatically speeds up the evolutionary advance.

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Elisheva Cohen, David A. Kessler, Herbert Levine. 2004-10-13. Recombination dramatically speeds up evolution of finite populations. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.94.098102

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