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The genetical theory of multilevel selection

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gardner2015jevolbiol305.pdf (441.8Kb)
Date
11/03/2015
Author
Gardner, Andy
Keywords
Class structure
Covariance
Emergence
Evolutionary genetics
Group selection
Natural selection
Price's theorem
Social evolution
Simpson's paradox
Reproductive value
QH301 Biology
T-NDAS
BDC
R2C
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Abstract
The theory of multilevel selection (MLS) is beset with conceptual difficulties. Although it is widely agreed that covariance between group trait and group fitness may arise in the natural world and drive a response to ‘group selection’, ambiguity exists over the precise meaning of group trait and group fitness and as to whether group selection should be defined according to changes in frequencies of different types of individual or different types of group. Moreover, the theory of MLS has failed to properly engage with the problem of class structure, which greatly limits its empirical application to, for example, social insects whose colonies are structured into separate age, sex, caste and ploidy classes. Here, I develop a genetical theory of MLS, to address these problems. I show that taking a genetical approach facilitates a decomposition of group‐level traits – including reproductive success – into the separate contributions made by each constituent individual, even in the context of so‐called emergence. However, I uncover a novel problem with the group‐oriented approach: in many scenarios, it may not be possible to express a meaningful covariance between trait and fitness at the level of the social group, because the group's constituents belong to separate, irreconcilable classes.
Citation
Gardner , A 2015 , ' The genetical theory of multilevel selection ' , Journal of Evolutionary Biology , vol. 28 , no. 2 , pp. 305-319 . https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12566
Publication
Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12566
ISSN
1010-061X
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2014 The Author. Journal of Evolutionary Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society for Evolutionary Biology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grant number NE/K009524/1).
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/5979

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