A quantitative test of Hamilton's rule for the evolution of altruism.

The evolution of altruism is a fundamental and enduring puzzle in biology. In a seminal paper Hamilton showed that altruism can be selected for when rb - c > 0, where c is the fitness cost to the altruist, b is the fitness benefit to the beneficiary, and r is their genetic relatedness. While many...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Markus Waibel, Dario Floreano, Laurent Keller
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/26e9bfaad4ad49a8a69aa4d40a72b840
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
id oai:doaj.org-article:26e9bfaad4ad49a8a69aa4d40a72b840
record_format dspace
spelling oai:doaj.org-article:26e9bfaad4ad49a8a69aa4d40a72b8402021-11-18T05:36:13ZA quantitative test of Hamilton's rule for the evolution of altruism.1544-91731545-788510.1371/journal.pbio.1000615https://doaj.org/article/26e9bfaad4ad49a8a69aa4d40a72b8402011-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21559320/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1544-9173https://doaj.org/toc/1545-7885The evolution of altruism is a fundamental and enduring puzzle in biology. In a seminal paper Hamilton showed that altruism can be selected for when rb - c > 0, where c is the fitness cost to the altruist, b is the fitness benefit to the beneficiary, and r is their genetic relatedness. While many studies have provided qualitative support for Hamilton's rule, quantitative tests have not yet been possible due to the difficulty of quantifying the costs and benefits of helping acts. Here we use a simulated system of foraging robots to experimentally manipulate the costs and benefits of helping and determine the conditions under which altruism evolves. By conducting experimental evolution over hundreds of generations of selection in populations with different c/b ratios, we show that Hamilton's rule always accurately predicts the minimum relatedness necessary for altruism to evolve. This high accuracy is remarkable given the presence of pleiotropic and epistatic effects as well as mutations with strong effects on behavior and fitness (effects not directly taken into account in Hamilton's original 1964 rule). In addition to providing the first quantitative test of Hamilton's rule in a system with a complex mapping between genotype and phenotype, these experiments demonstrate the wide applicability of kin selection theory.Markus WaibelDario FloreanoLaurent KellerPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleBiology (General)QH301-705.5ENPLoS Biology, Vol 9, Iss 5, p e1000615 (2011)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Biology (General)
QH301-705.5
spellingShingle Biology (General)
QH301-705.5
Markus Waibel
Dario Floreano
Laurent Keller
A quantitative test of Hamilton's rule for the evolution of altruism.
description The evolution of altruism is a fundamental and enduring puzzle in biology. In a seminal paper Hamilton showed that altruism can be selected for when rb - c > 0, where c is the fitness cost to the altruist, b is the fitness benefit to the beneficiary, and r is their genetic relatedness. While many studies have provided qualitative support for Hamilton's rule, quantitative tests have not yet been possible due to the difficulty of quantifying the costs and benefits of helping acts. Here we use a simulated system of foraging robots to experimentally manipulate the costs and benefits of helping and determine the conditions under which altruism evolves. By conducting experimental evolution over hundreds of generations of selection in populations with different c/b ratios, we show that Hamilton's rule always accurately predicts the minimum relatedness necessary for altruism to evolve. This high accuracy is remarkable given the presence of pleiotropic and epistatic effects as well as mutations with strong effects on behavior and fitness (effects not directly taken into account in Hamilton's original 1964 rule). In addition to providing the first quantitative test of Hamilton's rule in a system with a complex mapping between genotype and phenotype, these experiments demonstrate the wide applicability of kin selection theory.
format article
author Markus Waibel
Dario Floreano
Laurent Keller
author_facet Markus Waibel
Dario Floreano
Laurent Keller
author_sort Markus Waibel
title A quantitative test of Hamilton's rule for the evolution of altruism.
title_short A quantitative test of Hamilton's rule for the evolution of altruism.
title_full A quantitative test of Hamilton's rule for the evolution of altruism.
title_fullStr A quantitative test of Hamilton's rule for the evolution of altruism.
title_full_unstemmed A quantitative test of Hamilton's rule for the evolution of altruism.
title_sort quantitative test of hamilton's rule for the evolution of altruism.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate 2011
url https://doaj.org/article/26e9bfaad4ad49a8a69aa4d40a72b840
work_keys_str_mv AT markuswaibel aquantitativetestofhamiltonsrulefortheevolutionofaltruism
AT dariofloreano aquantitativetestofhamiltonsrulefortheevolutionofaltruism
AT laurentkeller aquantitativetestofhamiltonsrulefortheevolutionofaltruism
AT markuswaibel quantitativetestofhamiltonsrulefortheevolutionofaltruism
AT dariofloreano quantitativetestofhamiltonsrulefortheevolutionofaltruism
AT laurentkeller quantitativetestofhamiltonsrulefortheevolutionofaltruism
_version_ 1718424901475368960