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CATEGORIES:BSS Formal Seminars
SUMMARY:If the fittest never arrive\, then they can't surv
 ive:  on the topology of evolutionary search. - Pr
 of. Ard A Louis\, Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theore
 tical Physics\, Oxford University
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20140502T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20140502T150000
UID:TALK52059AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/52059
DESCRIPTION:Darwinian evolution proceeds in two steps. Firstly
 \, there is variation: due to mutations\, differen
 t members of a population may have differences in 
 traits. Secondly\, there is selection: if the vari
 ation in a trait allows an organism to have more v
 iable offspring\, to be 'fitter'\, then that trait
  will eventually come to dominate in the populatio
 n.    But is that variation generated in a uniform
  fashion\, or could there be biases in the way it 
 appears?    Some general considerations of genotyp
 e-phenotype maps  and evolutionary search suggest 
 that A) Because of neutral mutations\, the number 
 of genotypes is typically much larger than the num
 ber of possible phenotypes and B) These genotypes 
 are not uniformly distributed\, but rather highly 
 biased towards an exponentially small fraction of 
 "frequent' phenotypes that are therefore much more
  likely to arise by random mutations.   These larg
 e differences in the rates at which traits can arr
 ive through variation may direct evolution towards
  outcomes that are not simply the 'fittest'.  Inst
 ead it may be that the most 'frequent' are so much
  more likely to arrive\, that they are the ones wh
 o survive.  \n\nsee also \n"The arrival of the fre
 quent: how bias in genotype-phenotype maps can ste
 er populations to local optima":http://www.plosone
 .org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0
 086635 \nSteffen Schaper and Ard A. Louis \nPLoS O
 NE 9(2): e86635 (2014)
LOCATION:Small Lecture Theatre\, Cavendish Laboratory
CONTACT:Dr Eileen Nugent
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