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A Protocol for Functional Assessment of Whole-Protein Saturation Mutagenesis Libraries Utilizing High-Throughput Sequencing

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Published on: July 3, 2016

The ideal free distribution as an evolutionarily stable strategy.

Robert Stephen Cantrell¹, Chris Cosner, Donald L DeAngelis

¹Department of Mathematics, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL33124, USA. rsc@math.miami.edu

Journal of Biological Dynamics

|August 11, 2012

Summary

Evolutionarily stable strategies for dispersal and state-switching favor ideal free distributions. Only these strategies, where all individuals have equal fitness, are stable in heterogeneous environments.

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Population dynamics
Theoretical ecology

Background:

Studies suggest selection against random dispersal in heterogeneous environments.
Conditional dispersal strategies, influenced by environmental factors, may be favored.
Balanced dispersal, leading to equal equilibrium densities, has shown evolutionary stability.

Purpose of the Study:

To examine the evolutionary stability of dispersal and state-switching strategies.
To determine conditions under which ideal free strategies are evolutionarily stable.
To unify and extend previous theoretical results on dispersal evolution.

Main Methods:

Analysis of population dynamics and species interactions in continuous and discrete time models.
Invasibility analysis using ordinary differential equations.
Application of nonnegative matrix theory.

Main Results:

Ideal free strategies are evolutionarily stable under general assumptions for population dynamics and species interactions.
Balanced dispersal, resulting in ideal free distributions, is shown to be evolutionarily stable.
Conditional dispersal strategies are favored over unconditional dispersal in heterogeneous environments.

Conclusions:

Only ideal free strategies, characterized by equal individual fitness, can be evolutionarily stable for dispersal and state-switching.
The findings provide a unified theoretical framework for understanding the evolution of dispersal and state-switching.
The study highlights the importance of environmental heterogeneity in shaping evolutionary strategies.