Hamilton, Williams and others suggested that this idea might explain the evolution of sexual reproduction: the increased genetic diversity caused by sexual reproduction would help maintain resistance against rapidly evolving parasites, thus making sexual reproduction common, despite the tremendous cost from the gene-centric point of view of a system where only half of an organism's genome is passed on during reproduction.
Hamilton, Williams e outros suxeriron que esta idea podería explicar a evolución da reprodución sexual: o incremento de diversidade xenética causado pola reprodución sexual axudaría a manter a resistencia contra parasitos que evolucionan rapidamente, o que faría que a reprodución sexual se fixese común, malia o tremendo custo do punto de vista xene-céntrico dun sistema onde só a metade do xenoma dun organismo se transmite durante a reprodución.