Zarina 6022:
The Black Queen Hypothesis (BQH) is a theory of reductive evolution which suggests that, in some cases, gene loss is driven by [[natural selection]] instead of [[genetic drift]]. <ref name="Morris 2012"> </ref> A gene that produces a vital biological function may become dispensable for an individual organism if the community members around it performs that function in a "leaky" fashion. Therefore, the organism gains an advantage by conserving limited resources while still acquiring necessary metabolites and such.
The theory was named after the queen of spades in the card game Heart, where the goal is to be the player with the least points at the end of the game. <ref name="Morris 2012" /> The queen of spades is worth as much as all the other cards combined, and thus the goal of the game is to avoid drawing the queen of spades. Analogously, the BQH posits that some genes are especially costly to maintain, and thus dispensing of them provides an evolutionary advantage. It is a fairly recent hypothesis; thus, it has not been thoroughly tested and the mechanisms driving it have not been fully elucidated. <ref name="Mas 2016"> </ref> However, the hypothesis is being investigated and gaining traction as more research continues to be conducted.
==References==<!-- Zarina_6022 -->
[[Category:Evolutionary biology]]
The theory was named after the queen of spades in the card game Heart, where the goal is to be the player with the least points at the end of the game. <ref name="Morris 2012" /> The queen of spades is worth as much as all the other cards combined, and thus the goal of the game is to avoid drawing the queen of spades. Analogously, the BQH posits that some genes are especially costly to maintain, and thus dispensing of them provides an evolutionary advantage. It is a fairly recent hypothesis; thus, it has not been thoroughly tested and the mechanisms driving it have not been fully elucidated. <ref name="Mas 2016"> </ref> However, the hypothesis is being investigated and gaining traction as more research continues to be conducted.
==References==<!-- Zarina_6022 -->
[[Category:Evolutionary biology]]
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