Multilevel and kin selection in a connected world

Michael J. Wade (), David S. Wilson, Charles Goodnight, Doug Taylor, Yaneer Bar-Yam, Marcus A. M. de Aguiar, Blake Stacey, Justin Werfel, Guy A. Hoelzer, Edmund D. Brodie, Peter Fields, Felix Breden, Timothy A. Linksvayer, Jeffrey A. Fletcher, Peter J. Richerson (), James D. Bever (), J. David Van Dyken () and Peter Zee ()
Additional contact information
Michael J. Wade: Indiana University
David S. Wilson: State University of New York at Binghamton
Charles Goodnight: University of Vermont
Doug Taylor: University of Virginia
Yaneer Bar-Yam: New England Complex Systems Institute, 24 Mount Auburn Street
Marcus A. M. de Aguiar: New England Complex Systems Institute, 24 Mount Auburn Street
Blake Stacey: New England Complex Systems Institute, 24 Mount Auburn Street
Justin Werfel: New England Complex Systems Institute, 24 Mount Auburn Street
Guy A. Hoelzer: University of Nevada Reno
Edmund D. Brodie: University of Virginia
Peter Fields: University of Virginia
Felix Breden: Simon Fraser University
Timothy A. Linksvayer: University of Copenhagen, Centre for Social Evolution, Universitetparken 15
Jeffrey A. Fletcher: Portland State University, Systems Science Graduate Program
Peter J. Richerson: University of California Davis
James D. Bever: Indiana University
J. David Van Dyken: Indiana University
Peter Zee: Indiana University

Nature, 2010, vol. 463, issue 7283, E8-E9

Abstract: Abstract Arising from: G. Wild, A. Gardner & S. A. West Nature 459, 983–986 (2009)10.1038/nature08071 ; Wild, Gardner & West reply Wild et al.1 argue that the evolution of reduced virulence can be understood from the perspective of inclusive fitness, obviating the need to evoke group selection as a contributing causal factor. Although they acknowledge the mathematical equivalence of the inclusive fitness and multilevel selection approaches, they conclude that reduced virulence can be viewed entirely as an individual-level adaptation by the parasite1. Here we show that their model is a well-known special case of the more general theory of multilevel selection, and that the cause of reduced virulence resides in the opposition of two processes: within-group and among-group selection. This distinction is important in light of the current controversy among evolutionary biologists in which some continue to affirm that natural selection centres only and always at the level of the individual organism or gene, despite mathematical demonstrations that evolutionary dynamics must be described by selection at various levels in the hierarchy of biological organization.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08809

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