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Related Concept Videos

Life Histories01:29

Life Histories

Constrained by limited energy and resources, organisms must compromise between offspring quantity and parental investment. This trade-off is represented by two primary reproductive strategies; K-strategists produce few offspring but provide substantial parental support, whereas r-strategists produce much progeny that receives little care. These strategies are related to an organism’s survival likelihood across its lifespan, which is represented by a survivorship curve. Three general types of...
Types of Selection01:46

Types of Selection

Natural selection influences the frequencies of particular alleles and phenotypes within populations in several different ways. Primarily, natural selection can be directional, stabilizing, or disruptive. Directional selection favors one extreme trait and shifts the population towards that phenotype while selecting against individuals displaying alternate traits. Stabilizing selection favors an intermediate trait with a narrow range of variation. Deviation from the optimal phenotype towards an...
Frequency-dependent Selection01:21

Frequency-dependent Selection

When the fitness of a trait is influenced by how common it is (i.e., its frequency) relative to different traits within a population, this is referred to as frequency-dependent selection. Frequency-dependent selection may occur between species or within a single species. This type of selection can either be positive—with more common phenotypes having higher fitness—or negative, with rarer phenotypes conferring increased fitness.Positive Frequency-Dependent SelectionIn positive...
Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift01:09

Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift

In a population that is not at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, the frequency of alleles changes over time. Therefore, any deviations from the five conditions of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium can alter the genetic variation of a given population. Conditions that change the genetic variability of a population include mutations, natural selection, non-random mating, gene flow, and genetic drift (small population size).Mechanisms of Genetic VariationThe original sources of genetic variation are mutations,...
Natural Selection and Mating Preferences01:06

Natural Selection and Mating Preferences

The principle of natural selection posits that organisms better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. This principle is closely intertwined with mating preferences, a key aspect of sexual selection, which evolutionary psychologists believe is driven by instincts to propagate one's genes. Such instincts significantly influence mating behaviors and preferences between genders.
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Genetic Drift03:33

Genetic Drift

Natural selection—probably the most well-known evolutionary mechanism—increases the prevalence of traits that enhance survival and reproduction. However, evolution does not merely propagate favorable traits, nor does it always benefit populations.Life is not fair. A deer grazing contentedly in a field can have her meal cut tragically short by a bolt of lightning. If the doomed doe is one of only three in the population, 1/3 of the population’s gene pool is lost. Random events like this can...

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Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
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Reproductive value and fluctuating selection in an age-structured population.

Steinar Engen1, Russell Lande, Bernt-Erik Saether

  • 1Centre for Conservation Biology, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. steinaen@math.ntnu.no

Genetics
|July 22, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Using reproductive value weighting can filter out age structure fluctuations, simplifying population size and allele frequency analyses in evolutionary studies. This method aids in understanding population dynamics and genetic changes in fluctuating environments.

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Area of Science:

  • Population Genetics
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Demography

Background:

  • Environmental stochasticity causes age structure fluctuations, leading to autocorrelation in population size and allele frequencies.
  • These fluctuations complicate demographic and evolutionary analyses, hindering accurate interpretation of population dynamics and genetic changes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To demonstrate that weighting individuals by reproductive value can effectively filter out temporal autocorrelation caused by stochastic age structure.
  • To develop a diffusion approximation for the evolution of reproductive value-weighted allele frequencies under specific assumptions.
  • To establish statistical methods for measuring selection on these weighted allele frequencies in age-structured populations.

Main Methods:

  • Applied Fisher's suggestion of using reproductive value weighting for individuals of different ages.
  • Derived a diffusion approximation for the evolution of reproductive value-weighted allele frequency assuming weak selection, random mating, and stationary environments.
  • Utilized population genetics models and simulations of age-structured populations to verify the approximation.

Main Results:

  • Reproductive value weighting acts as a filter, removing temporal autocorrelation from population demography and evolution.
  • The expected evolution of reproductive value-weighted allele frequency follows an adaptive topography defined by the population's long-run growth rate.
  • Expected genotype fitness is determined by Malthusian fitness adjusted for the covariance of its growth rate with the population's growth rate.

Conclusions:

  • Reproductive value weighting is a powerful tool for simplifying demographic and evolutionary analyses in age-structured populations with environmental fluctuations.
  • The derived diffusion approximation accurately describes the evolution of allele frequencies under these conditions.
  • New statistical methods enable the measurement of selection on reproductive value-weighted allele frequencies, advancing the study of evolution in complex populations.