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Frequency-dependent Selection

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.

What is Natural Selection?

What is Natural Selection?

Natural selection is an evolutionary process in which individuals with survival-promoting traits reproduce at higher rates. These favorable traits become more common within a population or species. Naturally selected traits initially arise via random genetic mutations. In order for selection to occur, there must be variation within a population, the trait controlling the variation must be heritable, and there must be an evolutionary advantage for variation in the trait.

Types of Selection

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...

Limits to Natural Selection

Limits to Natural Selection

Organisms that are well-adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. However, natural selection does not lead to perfectly adapted organisms. Several factors constrain natural selection.

Hardy-Weinberg Principle

Hardy-Weinberg Principle

Diploid organisms have two alleles of each gene, one from each parent, in their somatic cells. Therefore, each individual contributes two alleles to the gene pool of the population. The gene pool of a population is the sum of every allele of all genes within that population and has some degree of variation. Genetic variation is typically expressed as a relative frequency, which is the percentage of the total population that has a given allele, genotype or phenotype.

Natural Selection and Mating Preferences

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.
Females, due to their biological roles in conception, pregnancy, and nursing,...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 2, 2026

A Novel Bayesian Change-point Algorithm for Genome-wide Analysis of Diverse ChIPseq Data Types

A Novel Bayesian Change-point Algorithm for Genome-wide Analysis of Diverse ChIPseq Data Types

Published on: December 10, 2012

Can natural selection encode Bayesian priors?

Juan Camilo Ramírez¹, James A R Marshall²

¹Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), Houston, Texas, USA.

Journal of Theoretical Biology

|May 25, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Organisms evolve to make optimal decisions from uncertain environmental data using Bayesian inference. Natural selection favors accurate prior beliefs, giving Bayesian decision-makers an evolutionary edge over frequentist approaches.

Keywords:

Baldwin effect Bayesian learning Bayesian priors Evolution Natural selection Optimal decision-making

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Behavioral ecology
Computational neuroscience

Background:

Organismal survival hinges on decision-making under environmental uncertainty.
Bayesian inference offers an optimal framework for processing uncertain information.
Natural selection is hypothesized to favor behaviors consistent with Bayesian estimation.

Purpose of the Study:

To model how natural selection shapes genetically encoded Bayesian prior estimates.
To investigate the evolution of decision-making strategies based on uncertain environmental cues.
To compare the evolutionary success of Bayesian versus frequentist inference in decision-making.

Main Methods:

Developed an evolutionary model simulating populations estimating event probabilities.
Individuals inherited prior beliefs and updated them using noisy environmental data.
Fitness was directly correlated with the accuracy of posterior probability estimates.

Main Results:

Simulations demonstrated that prior estimates evolve towards accuracy over time.
Bayesian individuals, utilizing prior beliefs, exhibited an evolutionary advantage over frequentist individuals.
This advantage diminished when environmental information was less uncertain.

Conclusions:

Natural selection can effectively shape accurate Bayesian prior beliefs through inherited strategies.
Bayesian inference provides a robust evolutionary advantage in environments with uncertain information.
Decision-making mechanisms evolve to optimize information processing for survival and reproduction.