Analytical Tools for Evolutionary Processes

Milestones in this interdisciplinary area of study include Motoo Kimura's formulation of the neutral theory of molecular evolution (which holds that most of the mutations that survive in a population provide no selective advantage to the organism), William Hamilton's theory of kin selectio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American Scientist 2007, Vol.95 (6), p.546-549
Main Authors: Castillo-Chavez, Carlos, Castillo-Garsow, Carlos
Format: Review
Language:English
Subjects:
Evolution
Evolutionary biology
Game theory
Grammar
Linguistics
MATHEMATICS
Mortality
Mutation
Nonfiction
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Summary:Milestones in this interdisciplinary area of study include Motoo Kimura's formulation of the neutral theory of molecular evolution (which holds that most of the mutations that survive in a population provide no selective advantage to the organism), William Hamilton's theory of kin selection (which offers a genetic explanation for altruism), John Maynard Smith's invention of evolutionary game theory, and Robert May's mathematical approaches to ecology and epidemiology. Topics covered include quasispecies theory, fitness landscapes, sequence spaces and evolutionary game dynamics (which arise when the fitness of an individual depends on the relative abundance of others in the population)-including prisoner's dilemma, games in finite populations, games on graphs, and manipulations on spatial grids that bring together game theory and cellular automata.
ISSN:0003-0996
1545-2786
DOI:10.1511/2007.68.546