Biased conversion as the primary function of recombination

Abstract

Summary: Recombination is hard to understand in darwinian terms when the process is identified with the production of crossover chromosomes. As an alternative explanation I propose instead that biased conversion is the primary function of meiotic recombination. In particular I show that a conversion process directed against the most common type of genetic damage can substantially reduce the mutational load, even if the conversion force is weak and if the conversion process occasionally creates new mutations.