The Maintenance of Heritable Variation Through Social Competition

Harris, W. E.; McKane, Alan J.; Wolf, Jason B.

doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2007.00302.x

Cited by 40 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…In many systems, interacting individuals will be relatives and we stress that in obtaining Equation 6 the simplifying assumption that the covariance between an individual's breeding value and the mean breeding value of the group is zero precludes a response to kin selection that can and should be included (Bijma 2010b;McGlothlin et al 2010). In addition, Cooke et al's (1990) model assumes that competitive abilities are transitive in the sense that if individual A outcompetes B, and individual B outcompetes C, then individual A must outcompete individual C (Harris et al 2008). Such a model predicts that individuals in later generations would on average outcompete individuals in previous generations, which may hold over short timescales but is unlikely to be a general property of competitive interactions, as evidenced in yeast (Paquin and Adams 1983).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cryptic Evolution: Does Environmental Deterioration Have a Genetic Basis?

2011

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Cryptic evolution has been defined as adaptive evolutionary change being masked by concurrent environmental change. Empirical studies of cryptic evolution have usually invoked a changing climate and/ or increasing population density as the form of detrimental environmental change experienced by a population undergoing cryptic evolution. However, Fisher (1958) emphasized that evolutionary change in itself is likely to be an important component of ''environmental deterioration,'' a point restated by Cooke et al. (1990) in the context of intraspecific competition. In this form, environmental deterioration arises because a winning lineage has to compete against more winners in successive generations as the population evolves. This ''evolutionary environmental deterioration'' has different implications for the selection and evolution of traits influenced by resource competition than general environmental change. We reformulate Cooke's model as a quantitative genetic model to show that it is identical in form to more recent developments proposed by quantitative geneticists. This provides a statistical framework for discriminating between the alternative hypotheses of environmental change and environmental deterioration caused by evolutionary change. We also demonstrate that in systems where no phenotypic change has occurred, there are many reasonable biological processes that will generate patterns in predicted breeding values that are consistent with what has been interpreted as cryptic evolution, and care needs to be taken when interpreting these patterns. These processes include mutation, sib competition, and invisible fractions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cryptic Evolution: Does Environmental Deterioration Have a Genetic Basis?

2011

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“…This result is broadly consistent with previous work [39] suggesting that genotypes that are less aggressive on average also have lower mating rates in aggressive social contexts. This type of genotype-by-social environment interaction for mating success can adaptively maintain heritable variation in male aggressiveness [55][56][57]. Further research is needed to determine how sexual selection generated by second-order IGEs contributes to the depletion and/or adaptive maintenance of genetic variation in social behaviour.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic composition of social groups influences male aggressive behaviour and fitness in natural genotypes ofDrosophila melanogaster

Saltz

2013

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Indirect genetic effects (IGEs) describe how an individual's behaviour-which is influenced by his or her genotype-can affect the behaviours of interacting individuals. IGE research has focused on dyads. However, insights from social networks research, and other studies of group behaviour, suggest that dyadic interactions are affected by the behaviour of other individuals in the group. To extend IGE inferences to groups of three or more, IGEs must be considered from a group perspective. Here, I introduce the 'focal interaction' approach to study IGEs in groups. I illustrate the utility of this approach by studying aggression among natural genotypes of Drosophila melanogaster. I chose two natural genotypes as 'focal interactants': the behavioural interaction between them was the 'focal interaction'. One male from each focal interactant genotype was present in every group, and I varied the genotype of the third male-the 'treatment male'. Genetic variation in the treatment male's aggressive behaviour influenced the focal interaction, demonstrating that IGEs in groups are not a straightforward extension of IGEs measured in dyads. Further, the focal interaction influenced male mating success, illustrating the role of IGEs in behavioural evolution. These results represent the first manipulative evidence for IGEs at the group level.

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“…Second, we employed artificially selected lab stocks with behaviourally extreme phenotypes, and tested them against the naturally derived lines, in order to determine whether there are tradeoffs associated with these extreme behaviours which would explain why they are not common in nature. Intransitive patterns of territorial success might be one expected tradeoff, if extreme behavioural types are not competent against all other behavioural strategies in the population, as predicted in [7]. If there is a direct fitness benefit to territorial success, intransitive patterns of success between genotypes could maintain variation in aggressive strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Competitive mating interactions are one example of how IGEs can affect fitness in ways that may help explain maintenance of variation [7]. Success in competitive interactions for individuals with different genotypes may be intransitive between competing types [8], frequency dependant [9], or dependent on variation in the preferences of potential mates [10]–[12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In each of these cases, the Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS) will be a mix of strategies among individuals seeking mates. Theoretical work suggests that even in homogenous environments, variation in IGEs may not be lost [7]. While variants with a consistent advantage are likely to go to fixation quickly, variants with intransitive patterns of success against different competitors are likely to be retained in populations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does Sex Trade with Violence among Genotypes in Drosophila melanogaster?

2008

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The evolutionary forces shaping the ability to win competitive interactions, such as aggressive encounters, are still poorly understood. Given a fitness advantage for competitive success, variance in aggressive and sexual display traits should be depleted, but a great deal of variation in these traits is consistently found. While life history tradeoffs have been commonly cited as a mechanism for the maintenance of variation, the variability of competing strategies of conspecifics may mean there is no single optimum strategy. We measured the genetically determined outcomes of aggressive interactions, and the resulting effects on mating success, in a panel of diverse inbred lines representing both natural variation and artificially selected genotypes. Males of one genotype which consistently lost territorial encounters with other genotypes were nonetheless successful against males that were artificially selected for supernormal aggression and dominated all other lines. Intransitive patterns of territorial success could maintain variation in aggressive strategies if there is a preference for territorial males. Territorial success was not always associated with male mating success however and females preferred ‘winners’ among some male genotypes, and ‘losers’ among other male genotypes. This suggests that studying behaviour from the perspective of population means may provide limited evolutionary and genetic insight. Overall patterns of competitive success among males and mating transactions between the sexes are consistent with mechanisms proposed for the maintenance of genetic variation due to nonlinear outcomes of competitive interactions.

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The Maintenance of Heritable Variation Through Social Competition

Cited by 40 publications

References 63 publications

Cryptic Evolution: Does Environmental Deterioration Have a Genetic Basis?

Cryptic Evolution: Does Environmental Deterioration Have a Genetic Basis?

Genetic composition of social groups influences male aggressive behaviour and fitness in natural genotypes ofDrosophila melanogaster

Does Sex Trade with Violence among Genotypes in Drosophila melanogaster?

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