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Muller's ratchet — Wikipedia (en)

Source: Wikipedia (en)
Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muller%27s_ratchet
License (as archived): CC-BY-SA-4.0
Archived: 2026-10-15T17:13:46.319Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: 140d3516e7608ab7b8144c4a0368dd32ecd032cccd7b6f746ade250bc3379f2c
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How to cite

Muller's ratchet — Wikipedia (en) — Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muller%27s_ratchet (CC-BY-SA-4.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_cf550e91ee75 (Metraipolis archive dc_cf550e91ee75, sha256 140d3516e7608ab7b8144c4a0368dd32ecd032cccd7b6f746ade250bc3379f2c)

BibTeX

@misc{dccf550e91ee75,
  title = {Muller's ratchet — Wikipedia (en)},
  howpublished = {Wikipedia (en)},
  url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muller%27s_ratchet},
  note = {License CC-BY-SA-4.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_cf550e91ee75; sha256 140d3516e7608ab7b8144c4a0368dd32ecd032cccd7b6f746ade250bc3379f2c},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Attribution: Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muller%27s_ratchet. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

In evolutionary genetics, Muller's ratchet (named after American geneticist Hermann Joseph Muller, by analogy with a ratchet effect) is a process which, in the absence of recombination (especially in an asexual population), results in an accumulation of irreversible deleterious mutations. That happens because in the absence of recombination, and assuming reverse mutations are rare, offspring bear at least as much mutational load as their parents. Muller proposed the mechanism as one reason why sexual reproduction may be favored over asexual reproduction, as sexual organisms benefit from recombination and consequent elimination of deleterious mutations. The negative effect of accumulating irreversible deleterious mutations may not be prevalent in organisms which, while they reproduce asexually, also undergo other forms of recombination. This effect has also been observed in those regions of the genomes of sexual organisms that do not undergo recombination.

Tema degli esploratori: scienze della vita e salute (deposito sistematico; ricerca «evolutionary biology»).
Fonte: Wikipedia in inglese, voce «Muller's ratchet» — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muller%27s_ratchet
Wikidata Q1154978 (dati Wikidata in CC0 1.0) — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1154978
Autori: i contributori di Wikipedia (cronologia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muller%27s_ratchet?action=history).
Licenza: Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Il riuso richiede attribuzione e stessa licenza.
Estratto dell'introduzione non modificato nel contenuto; revisione 1357455689, consultata il 2026-10-15T16:20:36.265Z tramite l'API ufficiale di Wikipedia. Impronta SHA-256 dell'estratto: 8d145381629cd8c06965d3e338d743266c56397f81003c7e60675ba9a57ea971