 Evolutionary dynamics of a quantitative trait in a finite asexual populationDébarre, Florence and Sarah P. Otto Theoretical Population Biology, 2016, vol. 108, issue C, 75-88 Abstract: In finite populations, mutation limitation and genetic drift can hinder evolutionary diversification. We consider the evolution of a quantitative trait in an asexual population whose size can vary and depends explicitly on the trait. Previous work showed that evolutionary branching is certain (“deterministic branching†) above a threshold population size, but uncertain (“stochastic branching†) below it. Using the stationary distribution of the population’s trait variance, we identify three qualitatively different sub-domains of “stochastic branching†and illustrate our results using a model of social evolution. We find that in very small populations, branching will almost never be observed; in intermediate populations, branching is intermittent, arising and disappearing over time; in larger populations, finally, branching is expected to occur and persist for substantial periods of time. Our study provides a clearer picture of the ecological conditions that facilitate the appearance and persistence of novel evolutionary lineages in the face of genetic drift. Keywords: Diversification; Drift; Finite population; Branching; Quantitative trait (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:108:y:2016:i:c:p:75-88 DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2015.12.002 Access Statistics for this article Theoretical Population Biology is currently edited by Jeremy Van Cleve More articles in Theoretical Population Biology from Elsevier |
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