The evolutionary advantage of condition-dependent recombination in a Red Queen model with diploid antagonists

Abstract

Antagonistic interaction, like those between a host and its parasite, are known to cause oscillations in genetic structure of both species, usually referred to as Red Queen dynamics (RQD). The RQD is believed to be a plausible explanation for the evolution of sex/recombination, although numerous theoretical models showed that this may happen only under rather restricted parameter values (selection intensity, epistasis, etc.). Here, we consider two diploid antagonists, each with either two or three selected loci; the interaction is based on matching phenotypes model. We use the RQD, whenever it emerges in this system, as a substrate to examine the evolution of one recombination feature, condition dependence in diploids, which still remains an underexplored question. We consider several forms of condition-dependent recombination, with recombination rates in the host being sensitive either to the parasites mean fitness, or to the hosts infection status, or to the hosts genotype fitness. We show that all form of condition-dependent recombination can be favored over the corresponding optimal constant recombination rate, even including situations in which the optimal constant recombination rate is zero.