Before revision: Models of asexually reproducing populations in varying environments have provided insights into the diversity of adaptive strategies, revealed deep analogies with information theory and stochastic thermodynamics, and inspired quantitative methods to analyze single-cell experiments. Here we show how these models can be generalized to sexually reproducing populations. The resulting framework is applied to two fundamental questions. First, what are the conditions under which sexual reproduction is advantageous over asexual reproduction?
After revision: Models of asexually reproducing populations in varying environments quantifies the evolutionary value of processing the information that biological individuals inherit from their ancestors and acquire from their environment. Previous models were limited to asexual reproduction with inherited information coming from a single parent with no recombination. We present a general extension to sexual reproduction and an analytical solution for a particular but important case, the infinitesimal model of quantitative genetics which assumes traits to be normally distributed. We study with this model the conditions under which sexual reproduction is advantageous over asexual reproduction?