scholarly journals Genes underlying altruism

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 20130395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham J. Thompson ◽  
Peter L. Hurd ◽  
Bernard J. Crespi
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Candidate Genes ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Social Animals

William D. Hamilton postulated the existence of ‘genes underlying altruism’, under the rubric of inclusive fitness theory, a half-century ago. Such genes are now poised for discovery. In this article, we develop a set of intuitive criteria for the recognition and analysis of genes for altruism and describe the first candidate genes affecting altruism from social insects and humans. We also provide evidence from a human population for genetically based trade-offs, underlain by oxytocin-system polymorphisms, between alleles for altruism and alleles for non-social cognition. Such trade-offs between self-oriented and altruistic behaviour may influence the evolution of phenotypic diversity across all social animals.

scholarly journals Monogamy promotes worker sterility in insect societies

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas G. Davies ◽  
Andy Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Population Genetics ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Stable States ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Extended Analysis ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Worker Sterility

AbstractInclusive-fitness theory highlights monogamy as a key driver of altruistic sib-rearing. Accordingly, monogamy should promote the evolution of worker sterility in social insects when sterile workers make for better helpers. However, a recent population-genetics analysis (Olejarzet al.2015) found no clear effect of monogamy on worker sterility. Here, we revisit this analysis. First, we relax genetic assumptions, considering not only alleles of extreme effect—encoding either no sterility or complete sterility—but also alleles with intermediate worker-sterility effects. Second, we broaden the stability analysis—which focused on the invasibility of populations where either all workers are fully-sterile or all workers are fully-reproductive—to identify where intermediate pure or mixed evolutionarily-stable states may occur. Finally, we consider additional, demographically-explicit ecological scenarios relevant to worker non-reproduction. This extended analysis demonstrates that an exact population-genetics approach strongly supports the prediction of inclusive-fitness theory that monogamy promotes sib-directed altruism in social insects.

Social Evolution, Hamilton’s Rule, and Inclusive Fitness

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samir Okasha
Keyword(s):  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Popular Approach ◽  
Hamilton’S Rule ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Encounters ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Hamilton's Rule

Inclusive fitness theory, originally due to W. D. Hamilton, is a popular approach to the study of social evolution, but shrouded in controversy. The theory contains two distinct aspects: Hamilton’s rule (rB > C); and the idea that individuals will behave as if trying to maximize their inclusive fitness in social encounters. These two aspects of the theory are logically separable but often run together. A generalized version of Hamilton’s rule can be formulated that is always true, though whether it is causally meaningful is debatable. However, the individual maximization claim only holds true if the payoffs from the social encounter are additive. The notion that inclusive fitness is the ‘goal’ of individuals’ social behaviour is less robust than some of its advocates acknowledge.

scholarly journals Candidate genes and SNPs associated with stomatal conductance under drought stress in Vitis

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Trenti ◽  
Silvia Lorenzi ◽  
Pier Luigi Bianchedi ◽  
Daniele Grossi ◽  
Osvaldo Failla ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drought Stress ◽  
Stomatal Conductance ◽  
Candidate Genes ◽  
Water Deficit ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Snp Array ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Raffinose Synthase ◽  
Response To Water

Abstract Background Understanding the complexity of the vine plant’s response to water deficit represents a major challenge for sustainable winegrowing. Regulation of water use requires a coordinated action between scions and rootstocks on which cultivars are generally grafted to cope with phylloxera infestations. In this regard, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) approach was applied on an ‘ad hoc’ association mapping panel including different Vitis species, in order to dissect the genetic basis of transpiration-related traits and to identify genomic regions of grape rootstocks associated with drought tolerance mechanisms. The panel was genotyped with the GrapeReSeq Illumina 20 K SNP array and SSR markers, and infrared thermography was applied to estimate stomatal conductance values during progressive water deficit. Results In the association panel the level of genetic diversity was substantially lower for SNPs loci (0.32) than for SSR (0.87). GWAS detected 24 significant marker-trait associations along the various stages of drought-stress experiment and 13 candidate genes with a feasible role in drought response were identified. Gene expression analysis proved that three of these genes (VIT_13s0019g03040, VIT_17s0000g08960, VIT_18s0001g15390) were actually induced by drought stress. Genetic variation of VIT_17s0000g08960 coding for a raffinose synthase was further investigated by resequencing the gene of 85 individuals since a SNP located in the region (chr17_10,497,222_C_T) was significantly associated with stomatal conductance. Conclusions Our results represent a step forward towards the dissection of genetic basis that modulate the response to water deprivation in grape rootstocks. The knowledge derived from this study may be useful to exploit genotypic and phenotypic diversity in practical applications and to assist further investigations.

scholarly journals Inclusive Fitness Theory from Darwin to Hamilton

Genetics ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 176 (3) ◽  
pp. 1375-1380
Author(s):  
Lee Alan Dugatkin
Keyword(s):  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory

scholarly journals War and peace: social interactions in infections

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1642) ◽  
pp. 20130365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen C. Leggett ◽  
Sam P. Brown ◽  
Sarah E. Reece
Keyword(s):  
Species Interactions ◽  
Disease Ecology ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Experimental Tests ◽  
Microbial Pathogens ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Social Strategies ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory ◽  
Social Behaviours

One of the most striking facts about parasites and microbial pathogens that has emerged in the fields of social evolution and disease ecology in the past few decades is that these simple organisms have complex social lives, indulging in a variety of cooperative, communicative and coordinated behaviours. These organisms have provided elegant experimental tests of the importance of relatedness, kin discrimination, cooperation and competition, in driving the evolution of social strategies. Here, we briefly review the social behaviours of parasites and microbial pathogens, including their contributions to virulence, and outline how inclusive fitness theory has helped to explain their evolution. We then take a mechanistically inspired ‘bottom-up’ approach, discussing how key aspects of the ways in which parasites and pathogens exploit hosts, namely public goods, mobile elements, phenotypic plasticity, spatial structure and multi-species interactions, contribute to the emergent properties of virulence and transmission. We argue that unravelling the complexities of within-host ecology is interesting in its own right, and also needs to be better incorporated into theoretical evolution studies if social behaviours are to be understood and used to control the spread and severity of infectious diseases.

scholarly journals OPPOSITION TO INBREEDING AMONG CLOSE KIN

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Antfolk ◽  
Debra Lieberman ◽  
Christopher Harju ◽  
Anna Albrecht ◽  
Andreas Mokros ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Indirect Costs ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Fitness Costs ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Close Relatives

Due to the intense selection pressure against inbreeding, humans are expected to possess psychological adaptations that regulate mate choice and avoid inbreeding. From a gene’s-eye perspective, there is little difference in the evolutionary costs between situations where an individual him/herself is participating in inbreeding and inbreeding among other close relatives. The difference is merely quantitative, as fitness can be compromised via both routes. The question is whether humans are sensitive to the direct as well as indirect costs of inbreeding. Using responses from a large population-based sample (27,364 responses from 2,353 participants), we found that human motivations to avoid inbreeding closely track the theoretical costs of inbreeding as predicted by inclusive-fitness theory. Participants were asked to select in a forced choice paradigm, which of two acts of inbreeding with actual family members they would want to avoid most. We found that the estimated fitness costs explained 83.6% of participant choices. Importantly, fitness costs explained choices also when the self was not involved. We conclude that humans intuit the indirect fitness costs of mating decisions made by close family members and that psychological inbreeding avoidance mechanisms extend beyond self-regulation.

scholarly journals Major Evolutionary Transitions in Social Insects, the Importance of Worker Sterility and Life History Trade-Offs

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abel Bernadou ◽  
Boris H. Kramer ◽  
Judith Korb
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Worker Sterility

The evolution of eusociality in social insects, such as termites, ants, and some bees and wasps, has been regarded as a major evolutionary transition (MET). Yet, there is some debate whether all species qualify. Here, we argue that worker sterility is a decisive criterion to determine whether species have passed a MET (= superorganisms), or not. When workers are sterile, reproductive interests align among group members as individual fitness is transferred to the colony level. Division of labour among cooperating units is a major driver that favours the evolution of METs across all biological scales. Many METs are characterised by a differentiation into reproductive versus maintenance functions. In social insects, the queen specialises on reproduction while workers take over maintenance functions such as food provisioning. Such division of labour allows specialisation and it reshapes life history trade-offs among cooperating units. For instance, individuals within colonies of social insects can overcome the omnipresent fecundity/longevity trade-off, which limits reproductive success in organisms, when increased fecundity shortens lifespan. Social insect queens (particularly in superorganismal species) can reach adult lifespans of several decades and are among the most fecund terrestrial animals. The resulting enormous reproductive output may contribute to explain why some genera of social insects became so successful. Indeed, superorganismal ant lineages have more species than those that have not passed a MET. We conclude that the release from life history constraints at the individual level is a important, yet understudied, factor across METs to explain their evolutionary success.

Evidence, Other Approaches, and Further Topics

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A.R. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Social Evolution ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Kin Recognition ◽  
Replicator Dynamics ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Price Equation ◽  
Evolution Theory ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory ◽  
The Many

This book has examined the genesis, the logic, and the generality of social evolution theory. In particular, it has presented evolutionary explanations of the many social behaviors we observe in the natural world by showing that William D. Hamilton's inclusive fitness theory provides the necessary generalization of classical Darwin–Wallace–Fisher fitness. This concluding chapter discusses the limitations of the analyses presented in this book and assesses the empirical support for inclusive fitness theory, focusing on microbial altruism, help in cooperative breeders, reproductive restraint in eusocial species, and the evolution of eusociality and cooperative breeding. It also considers more advanced topics in social evolution theory, including sex allocation, genetic kin recognition, spite, and the evolution of organismality. Finally, it reviews theoretical approaches to studying social evolution other than replicator dynamics and the Price equation, such as population genetics, class-structured populations, and maximization approaches.

scholarly journals Testing the Kundera Hypothesis: Does Every Woman (But Not Every Man) Prefer Her Child to Her Mate?

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 147470491880886
Author(s):  
Carlos Hernández Blasi ◽  
Laura Mondéjar
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Milan Kundera ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Car Crash ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory ◽  
Role Of Women

The context of a famous novel by Milan Kundera ( Immortality) suggests that when faced with a life-or-death situation, every woman would prefer to save her child than her husband, left hanging whether every man would do the same. We labeled this as the Kundera hypothesis, and the purpose of this study was to test it empirically as we believe it raises a thought-provoking question in evolutionary terms. Specifically, 197 college students (92 women) were presented a questionnaire where they had to make different decisions about four dilemmas about who to save (their mate or their offspring) in two hypothetical life-or-death situations: a home fire and a car crash. These dilemmas involved two different mate ages (a 25- or a 40-year-old mate) and two offspring ages (1- or a 6-year-old child). For comparative purposes, we also included complementary life-or-death dilemmas on both a sibling and an offspring, and a sibling and a cousin. The results generally supported the Kundera hypothesis: Although the majority of men and women made the decision to save their offspring instead of their mate, about 18% of men on average (unlike the 5% of women) consistently decided to save their mate across the four dilemmas in the two life-or-death situations. These data were interpreted with reference to Hamilton’s inclusive fitness theory, the preferential role of women as kin keepers, and the evolution of altruism toward friends and mates.

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