| 1. |
- Dall, Sasha R. X., et al.
(författare)
-
Genes as cues : phenotypic integration of genetic and epigenetic information from a Darwinian perspective
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Trends in Ecology & Evolution. - : Elsevier BV. - 0169-5347 .- 1872-8383. ; 30:6, s. 327-333
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The development of multicellular organisms involves a delicate interplay between genetic and environmental influences. It is often useful to think of developmental systems as integrating available sources of information about current conditions to produce organisms. Genes and inherited physiology provide cues, as does the state of the environment during development. The integration systems themselves are under genetic control and subject to Darwinian selection, so we expect them to evolve to produce organisms that fit well with current ecological (including social) conditions. We argue for the scientific value of this explicitly informational perspective by providing detailed examples of how it can elucidate taxonomically diverse phenomena. We also present a general framework for linking genetic and phenotypic variation from an informational perspective. This application of Darwinian logic at the organismal level can elucidate genetic influences on phenotypic variation in novel and counterintuitive ways.
|
|
| 2. |
- Kuijper, Bram, et al.
(författare)
-
The evolution of social learning as phenotypic cue integration
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 0962-8436 .- 1471-2970. ; 376:1828
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Most analyses of the origins of cultural evolution focus on when and where social learning prevails over individual learning, overlooking the fact that there are other developmental inputs that influence phenotypic fit to the selective environment. This raises the question of how the presence of other cue ‘channels’ affects the scope for social learning. Here, we present a model that considers the simultaneous evolution of (i) multiple forms of social learning (involving vertical or horizontal learning based on either prestige or conformity biases) within the broader context of other evolving inputs on phenotype determination, including (ii) heritable epigenetic factors, (iii) individual learning, (iv) environmental and cascading maternal effects, (v) conservative bet-hedging, and (vi) genetic cues. In fluctuating environments that are autocorrelated (and hence predictable), we find that social learning from members of the same generation (horizontal social learning) explains the large majority of phenotypic variation, whereas other cues are much less important. Moreover, social learning based on prestige biases typically prevails in positively autocorrelated environments, whereas conformity biases prevail in negatively autocorrelated environments. Only when environments are unpredictable or horizontal social learning is characterized by an intrinsically low information content, other cues such as conservative bet-hedging or vertical prestige biases prevail.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Foundations of cultural evolution’.
|
|
| 3. |
- Leimar, Olof, 1949-, et al.
(författare)
-
Behavioural specialization and learning in social networks
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 0962-8452 .- 1471-2954. ; 289:1980
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Interactions in social groups can promote behavioural specialization. One way this can happen is when individuals engage in activities with two behavioural options and learn which option to choose. We analyse interactions in groups where individuals learn from playing games with two actions and negatively frequency-dependent payoffs, such as producer–scrounger, caller–satellite, or hawk–dove games. Group members are placed in social networks, characterized by the group size and the number of neighbours to interact with, ranging from just a few neighbours to interactions between all group members. The networks we analyse include ring lattices and the much-studied small-world networks. By implementing two basic reinforcement-learning approaches, action–value learning and actor–critic learning, in different games, we find that individuals often show behavioural specialization. Specialization develops more rapidly when there are few neighbours in a network and when learning rates are high. There can be learned specialization also with many neighbours, but we show that, for action–value learning, behavioural consistency over time is higher with a smaller number of neighbours. We conclude that frequency-dependent competition for resources is a main driver of specialization. We discuss our theoretical results in relation to experimental and field observations of behavioural specialization in social situations.
|
|
| 4. |
- Leimar, Olof, et al.
(författare)
-
Ecological Genetic Conflict : Genetic Architecture Can Shift the Balance between Local Adaptation and Plasticity
- 2019
-
Ingår i: American Naturalist. - : University of Chicago Press. - 0003-0147 .- 1537-5323. ; 193:1, s. 70-80
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Genetic polymorphism can contribute to local adaptation in heterogeneous habitats, for instance, as a single locus with alleles adapted to different habitats. Phenotypic plasticity can also contribute to trait variation across habitats, through developmental responses to habitat-specific cues. We show that the genetic architecture of genetically polymorphic and plasticity loci may influence the balance between local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity. These effects of genetic architecture are instances of ecological genetic conflict. A reduced effective migration rate for genes tightly linked to a genetic polymorphism provides an explanation for the effects, and they can occur both for a single trait and for a syndrome of coadapted traits. Using individual-based simulations and numerical analysis, we investigate how among-habitat genetic polymorphism and phenotypic plasticity depend on genetic architecture. We also study the evolution of genetic architecture itself, in the form of rates of recombination between genetically polymorphic loci and plasticity loci. Our main result is that for plasticity genes that are unlinked to loci with between-habitat genetic polymorphism, the slope of a reaction norm is steeper in comparison with the slope favored by plasticity genes that are tightly linked to genes for local adaptation.
|
|
| 5. |
- Leimar, Olof, et al.
(författare)
-
Genes as Cues of Relatedness and Social Evolution in Heterogeneous Environments
- 2016
-
Ingår i: PloS Computational Biology. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1553-734X .- 1553-7358. ; 12:6
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There are many situations where relatives interact while at the same time there is genetic polymorphism in traits influencing survival and reproduction. Examples include cheater-cooperator polymorphism and polymorphic microbial pathogens. Environmental heterogeneity, favoring different traits in nearby habitats, with dispersal between them, is one general reason to expect polymorphism. Currently, there is no formal framework of social evolution that encompasses genetic polymorphism. We develop such a framework, thus integrating theories of social evolution into the evolutionary ecology of heterogeneous environments. We allow for adaptively maintained genetic polymorphism by applying the concept of genetic cues. We analyze a model of social evolution in a two-habitat situation with limited dispersal between habitats, in which the average relatedness at the time of helping and other benefits of helping can differ between habitats. An important result from the analysis is that alleles at a polymorphic locus play the role of genetic cues, in the sense that the presence of a cue allele contains statistical information for an organism about its current environment, including information about relatedness. We show that epistatic modifiers of the cue polymorphism can evolve to make optimal use of the information in the genetic cue, in analogy with a Bayesian decision maker. Another important result is that the genetic linkage between a cue locus and modifier loci influences the evolutionary interest of modifiers, with tighter linkage leading to greater divergence between social traits induced by different cue alleles, and this can be understood in terms of genetic conflict.
|
|
| 6. |
- McNamara, John M., et al.
(författare)
-
Detection vs. selection : integration of genetic, epigenetic and environmental cues in fluctuating environments
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Ecology Letters. - : Wiley. - 1461-023X .- 1461-0248. ; 19:10, s. 1267-1276
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There are many inputs during development that influence an organism's fit to current or upcoming environments. These include genetic effects, transgenerational epigenetic influences, environmental cues and developmental noise, which are rarely investigated in the same formal framework. We study an analytically tractable evolutionary model, in which cues are integrated to determine mature phenotypes in fluctuating environments. Environmental cues received during development and by the mother as an adult act as detection-based (individually observed) cues. The mother's phenotype and a quantitative genetic effect act as selection-based cues (they correlate with environmental states after selection). We specify when such cues are complementary and tend to be used together, and when using the most informative cue will predominate. Thus, we extend recent analyses of the evolutionary implications of subsets of these effects by providing a general diagnosis of the conditions under which detection and selection-based influences on development are likely to evolve and coexist.
|
|
| 7. |
- Smolla, Marco, et al.
(författare)
-
Underappreciated features of cultural evolution
- 2024
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Cultural evolution theory has long been inspired by evolutionary biology. Conceptual analogies between biological and cultural evolution have led to the adoption of a range of formal theoretical approaches from population dynamics and genetics. However, this has resulted in a research programme with a strong focus on cultural transmission. Here, we contrast biological with cultural evolution, and highlight aspects of cultural evolution that have not received sufficient attention previously. We outline possible implications for evolutionary dynamics and argue that not taking them into account will limit our understanding of cultural systems. We propose twelve key questions for future research, among which are calls to improve our understanding of the combinatorial properties of cultural innovation, and the role of development and life history in cultural dynamics. Finally, we discuss how this vibrant research field can make progress by embracing its multidisciplinary nature.
|
|
| 8. |
- Smolla, Marco, et al.
(författare)
-
Underappreciated features of cultural evolution
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 0962-8452 .- 1471-2954 .- 0962-8436 .- 1471-2970. ; 376:1828
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cultural evolution theory has long been inspired by evolutionary biology. Conceptual analogies between biological and cultural evolution have led to the adoption of a range of formal theoretical approaches from population dynamics and genetics. However, this has resulted in a research programme with a strong focus on cultural transmission. Here, we contrast biological with cultural evolution, and highlight aspects of cultural evolution that have not received sufficient attention previously. We outline possible implications for evolutionary dynamics and argue that not taking them into account will limit our understanding of cultural systems. We propose twelve key questions for future research, among which are calls to improve our understanding of the combinatorial properties of cultural innovation, and the role of development and life history in cultural dynamics. Finally, we discuss how this vibrant research field can make progress by embracing its multidisciplinary nature.
|
|
