A Short-Term Advantage for Syngamy in the Origin of Eukaryotic Sex: Effects of Cell Fusion on Cell Cycle Duration and Other Effects Related to the Duration of the Cell Cycle—Relationship between Cell Growth Curve and the Optimal Size of the Species, and Circadian Cell Cycle in Photosynthetic Unicellular Organisms

Figure 12

Biological space (combination of factors) where sex is able to displace the asexual strategy. Each point in the surface defines a combination of values for G1 relative duration, plateau relative duration, and fusion probability that allows the origin of sex. This surface is given by a spreadsheet simulation as shown in Appendix C. The red points show the combinations of G1 and plateau where sex did not succeed using CELLSIMULATOR; the green points show where it did succeed. Both results match very precisely. The lighter color surface is an impossible space (combinations of G1 and plateau durations that cannot exist).