A sexual system is a distribution of male and female functions across organisms in a species.[1][2] The terms reproductive system and mating system have also been used as synonyms.[3]
Sexual systems play a key role in genetic variation and reproductive success, and may also have led to the origin or extinction of certain species.[4] In flowering plants and animals, sexual reproduction involves meiosis, an adaptive process for repairing damage in the germline DNA transmitted to progeny.[5] The distinctions between different sexual systems is not always clear due to phenotypic plasticity.[2]
Interest in sexual systems goes back to Charles Darwin, who found that barnacles include some species that are androdioecious and some that are dioecious.[6]
- ^ Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior. Vol. 4. Academic Press. 2019-01-21. p. 584. ISBN 978-0-12-813252-4.
- ^ a b Leonard 2019, p. 1.
- ^ Cardoso, João Custódio Fernandes; Viana, Matheus Lacerda; Matias, Raphael; Furtado, Marco Túlio; Caetano, Ana Paula de Souza; Consolaro, Hélder; Brito, Vinícius Lourenço Garcia de (Jul–Sep 2018). "Towards a unified terminology for angiosperm reproductive systems". Acta Botanica Brasilica. 32 (3): 329–348. doi:10.1590/0102-33062018abb0124. ISSN 0102-3306. S2CID 91470660.
- ^ Goldberg EE, Otto SP, Vamosi JC, Mayrose I, Sabath N, Ming R, Ashman TL (April 2017). "Macroevolutionary synthesis of flowering plant sexual systems". Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution. 71 (4): 898–912. doi:10.1111/evo.13181. PMID 28085192. S2CID 19562183.
- ^ Bernstein H, Byerly HC, Hopf FA, Michod RE (September 1985). "Genetic damage, mutation, and the evolution of sex". Science. 229 (4719). New York, N.Y.: 1277–81. Bibcode:1985Sci...229.1277B. doi:10.1126/science.3898363. PMID 3898363.
- ^ Yusa Y, Yoshikawa M, Kitaura J, Kawane M, Ozaki Y, Yamato S, Høeg JT (March 2012). "Adaptive evolution of sexual systems in pedunculate barnacles". Proceedings. Biological Sciences. 279 (1730): 959–66. doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.1554. PMC 3259936. PMID 21881138.