Is Sexual Reproduction Important?

   In Olivia Judson's national bestseller, Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, chapter one described the advantages and disadvantages of asexual reproduction. Judson describes the different types of organisms and how they reproduce. An interesting point she mentioned was that mammals actually clone(reproduce without sex) as well, in the form of twins. She talks about how cloning is more efficient in maintaining a good demographic for population growth. Miss Philodina Roseola , the bdelloid rutifer, descending from aseuxual reproducing creatures that evolved, and have lived for over 85 million years without miosis. Another species mentioned was the E. Coli bacterium, and for bacteria, who reproduce asexually, sex is just a way to aquire extra genes. For strictly asexual organisms, genetic developments are hard to create and adapt to. Genetic mutations are generally neutral and have little effect, but when there is an effect, small changes are likely to harm the organism. Judson concluded that harmful mutations are sometimes the reasons why most asexuals go extinct.There is now way to measure mutation rates at the moment, but if the rates are low the mutations would not be the reason after all. She says that mammals are the only ones where the asexual reproduction of adults are unknown. Shuffling genes can help us evade parasites and reduce the impact of harmful mutations, where sex really enables us to survive.