Selection for altruistic defense in structured populations

Felix Jordan, Martin Hutzenthaler and Dirk Metzler

Theoretical Population Biology, 2025, vol. 161, issue C, 13-24

Abstract: We model natural selection for or against an anti-parasite (or anti-predator) defense allele in a host (or prey) population that is structured into many demes. The defense behavior has a fitness cost for the actor compared to non defenders (“cheaters†) in the same deme and locally reduces parasite growth rates. Hutzenthaler et al. (2022) have analytically derived a criterion for fixation or extinction of defenders in the limit of large populations, many demes, weak selection and slow migration. Here, we use both individual-based and diffusion-based simulation approaches to analyze related models. We find that the criterion still leads to accurate predictions for settings with finitely many demes and with various migration patterns.

Keywords: Defense; Host–parasite; Individual-based simulations; Altruism; Multi-level selection; Kin selection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040580924000960
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:161:y:2025:i:c:p:13-24

DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2024.11.001

Access Statistics for this article

Theoretical Population Biology is currently edited by Jeremy Van Cleve

More articles in Theoretical Population Biology from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().