Data from: “Meiotic genes” are constitutively expressed in an asexual amoeba and are not necessarily involved in sexual reproduction

The amoebae (and many other protists) have traditionally been considered
as asexual organisms but suspicion has been growing that these organisms
are cryptically sexual or are at least related to sexual lineages. This
contention is mainly based on genome studies in which the presence of
“meiotic genes” has been discovered. Using RNA-seq (next generation
shotgun sequencing, identifying and quantifying the RNA species in a
sample), we have found that the entire repertoire of meiotic genes is
expressed in exponentially growing Acanthamoeba and we argue that these so
called meiotic genes are involved in the related process of homologous
recombination in this amoeba. We contend that they are only involved in
meiosis in other organisms that indulge in sexual reproduction and that
homologous recombination is important in asexual protists as a guard
against the accumulation of mutations. We also suggest that asexual
reproduction is the ancestral state.