Simulated Coevolution in a Mutating Ecology

The bit-string Penna Model is used to simulate the competition between an asexual parthenogenetic and a sexual population sharing the same environment. A new-born of either population can mutate and become a part of the other with some probability. In a stable environment the sexual population soon dies out. When an infestation by fastly mutating genetically coupled parasites is introduced however, sexual reproduction prevails, as predicted by the so-called Red Queen hypothesis for the evolution of sex.