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Updated: Jun 30, 2025
04:52
Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
Published on: February 3, 2023
962
Evolution of cooperation in deme-structured populations on graphs
Alix Moawad1, Alia Abbara1, Anne-Florence Bitbol1
1Institute of Bioengineering, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland and SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Physical Review. E
|March 16, 2024
Summary
Cooperation evolution in spatial populations is complex. New coarse-grained models show natural selection does not favor cooperation when migration is independent of local population fitness.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary game theory
- Population dynamics
- Mathematical modeling
Background:
- Cooperation can evolve in spatially structured populations, often studied using the prisoner's dilemma game.
- Previous models relied on microscopic update rules coupling birth, death, and migration.
- Coarse-grained models offer an alternative by decoupling these processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the evolution of cooperation in coarse-grained models of spatial populations.
- To analyze the rare-migration regime within the prisoner's dilemma framework.
- To determine if natural selection favors cooperation in these simplified models.
Main Methods:
- Development of coarse-grained models where each node is a well-mixed deme.
- Migration is modeled independently of division and death rates.
- Analysis of the prisoner's dilemma in the rare-migration regime.
Main Results:
- Cooperation is not favored by natural selection in the studied coarse-grained models.
- This outcome occurs when overall deme fitness does not influence migration rates.
- A separation of scales limits cooperation's evolution: local within demes, between demes for spatial structure.
Conclusions:
- Coarse-grained models with independent migration may not support cooperation's evolution.
- The decoupling of migration from deme fitness is a key factor.
- Further research may explore different migration rules or model structures.
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