Towards a mechanistic foundation of evolutionary theory
Most evolutionary thinking is based on the notion of fitness and related ideas such as fitness landscapes and evolutionary optima. Nevertheless, it is often unclear what fitness actually is, and its meaning often depends on the context. Here we argue that fitness should not be a basal ingredient in...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2017-02-01
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| Series: | eLife |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/23804 |
| _version_ | 1811253115225112576 |
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| author | Michael Doebeli Yaroslav Ispolatov Burt Simon |
| author_facet | Michael Doebeli Yaroslav Ispolatov Burt Simon |
| author_sort | Michael Doebeli |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Most evolutionary thinking is based on the notion of fitness and related ideas such as fitness landscapes and evolutionary optima. Nevertheless, it is often unclear what fitness actually is, and its meaning often depends on the context. Here we argue that fitness should not be a basal ingredient in verbal or mathematical descriptions of evolution. Instead, we propose that evolutionary birth-death processes, in which individuals give birth and die at ever-changing rates, should be the basis of evolutionary theory, because such processes capture the fundamental events that generate evolutionary dynamics. In evolutionary birth-death processes, fitness is at best a derived quantity, and owing to the potential complexity of such processes, there is no guarantee that there is a simple scalar, such as fitness, that would describe long-term evolutionary outcomes. We discuss how evolutionary birth-death processes can provide useful perspectives on a number of central issues in evolution. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T16:45:52Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1c591c91edaf42f59134e5f9cf429de8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T16:45:52Z |
| publishDate | 2017-02-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-1c591c91edaf42f59134e5f9cf429de82022-12-22T03:24:34ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2017-02-01610.7554/eLife.23804Towards a mechanistic foundation of evolutionary theoryMichael Doebeli0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5975-5710Yaroslav Ispolatov1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0201-3396Burt Simon2Department of Zoology and Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaDepartamento de Fisica, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, ChileDepartment of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Colorado, Denver, United StatesMost evolutionary thinking is based on the notion of fitness and related ideas such as fitness landscapes and evolutionary optima. Nevertheless, it is often unclear what fitness actually is, and its meaning often depends on the context. Here we argue that fitness should not be a basal ingredient in verbal or mathematical descriptions of evolution. Instead, we propose that evolutionary birth-death processes, in which individuals give birth and die at ever-changing rates, should be the basis of evolutionary theory, because such processes capture the fundamental events that generate evolutionary dynamics. In evolutionary birth-death processes, fitness is at best a derived quantity, and owing to the potential complexity of such processes, there is no guarantee that there is a simple scalar, such as fitness, that would describe long-term evolutionary outcomes. We discuss how evolutionary birth-death processes can provide useful perspectives on a number of central issues in evolution.https://elifesciences.org/articles/23804evolutionary theoryfitnessmulti-level selectionbirth-death processadaptive dynamics |
| spellingShingle | Michael Doebeli Yaroslav Ispolatov Burt Simon Towards a mechanistic foundation of evolutionary theory eLife evolutionary theory fitness multi-level selection birth-death process adaptive dynamics |
| title | Towards a mechanistic foundation of evolutionary theory |
| title_full | Towards a mechanistic foundation of evolutionary theory |
| title_fullStr | Towards a mechanistic foundation of evolutionary theory |
| title_full_unstemmed | Towards a mechanistic foundation of evolutionary theory |
| title_short | Towards a mechanistic foundation of evolutionary theory |
| title_sort | towards a mechanistic foundation of evolutionary theory |
| topic | evolutionary theory fitness multi-level selection birth-death process adaptive dynamics |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/23804 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT michaeldoebeli towardsamechanisticfoundationofevolutionarytheory AT yaroslavispolatov towardsamechanisticfoundationofevolutionarytheory AT burtsimon towardsamechanisticfoundationofevolutionarytheory |