Why sexual reproduction predominates in nature remains a mystery. The mystery stems in part from the fact that many of the plausible hypotheses for sex have restrictive assumptions. Two decades ago these limitations inspired the formulation of a ‘pluralist’ approach in which standalone hypotheses for sex were considered together. Here we review representative literature to address whether this strategy has deepened our understanding of sex. We found surprisingly few papers adopting such an approach, probably reflecting challenges associated with testing multiple mechanisms. Nevertheless, these studies provided new insights, highlighting in particular the potential importance of interaction between parasites and harmful mutations. We conclude with strategies for moving forward, including broader formulations of pluralism and the application of more qualitative types of testing.

为什么有性生殖在自然界占主导地位仍然是一个谜。造成这种奥秘的部分原因是，许多关于性别的合理假设都具有限制性假设。二十年前，这些局限性激发了“多元主义者”方法的提出，该方法将关于性别的独立假设综合考虑。在这里，我们回顾代表性的文献，以探讨这种策略是否加深了我们对性的理解。我们惊奇地发现很少有论文采用这种方法，可能反映了与测试多种机制相关的挑战。然而，这些研究提供了新的见解，尤其突出了寄生虫和有害突变之间相互作用的潜在重要性。我们总结了前进的策略，