  We find an advantage of recombination for a category of complex fitness
landscapes. Recent studies of empirical fitness landscapes reveal complex gene
interactions and multiple peaks, and recombination can be a powerful mechanism
for escaping suboptimal peaks. However classical work on recombination largely
ignores the effect of complex gene interactions. The advantage we find has no
correspondence for 2-locus systems or for smooth landscapes. The effect is
sometimes extreme, in the sense that shutting off recombination could result in
that the organism fails to adapt. A standard question about recombination is if
the mechanism tends to accelerate or decelerate adaptation. However, we argue
that extreme effects may be more important than how the majority falls.
