Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 14: Evolutionary Game Theory III (joint SOE, BP)

BP 14.3: Talk

Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 14:45–15:00, H44

Stability of an underdominant polymorphism in the presence of migration — •Philipp M. Altrock, Arne Traulsen, R. Guy Reeves, and Floyd A. Reed — MPI f. Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany

In population genetics, underdominance refers to natural selection against individuals with a heterozygous genotype [1]. Here, we analyse a single–locus underdominant system of two large local populations that exchange individuals at a certain migration rate and can be characterized by fixed points in the joint allele frequency space. We specifically address the conditions under which underdominance can be applied to stably and reversibly transform a local population that is receiving untransformed migrants, where an exact relationship between the rate of migration and the degree of selection against heterozygotes, that allows stable local transformations, exists [2]. We also approximate the critical minimum frequency required to result in a stable population transformation. For doubly asymmetric configurations, i.e. different homozygote fitness and unequal migration rates, there is a regime where a stable transformation is only possible in one of the two populations. The stability of the system is robust to the migration of gravid females. We also address the relative influence of various forms of stochasticity (migration versus genetic drift).

[1] Hartl & Clark, Principles of Population Genetics, 2nd Edition. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, MA. (1989).

[2] Karlin & McGregor, Theor. Pop. Biol. 3, 186 (1972).