The Relation between Multilocus Population Genetics and Social Evolution Theory

2007/01/22 by Andy Gardner, Stuart A. West, Stuart A. West +2 · 142 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Social Sciences · #Biology #Coevolution #Computer science #Epistasis #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Evolutionary biology #Gene #Generality #Genetics #Human evolutionary genetics #Inclusive fitness #Kin selection #Machine learning #Natural selection #Phylogenetics #Plant and animal studies #Population #Population genetics #Price equation #Selection (genetic algorithm) #Social evolution #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1086/510602

published in The American Naturalist 169(2), 207-226 (University of Chicago Press)

openalex publication_date 2007/01/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11

Abstract

Evolution at multiple gene positions is complicated. Direct selection on one gene disturbs the evolutionary dynamics of associated genes. Recent years have seen the development of a multilocus methodology for modeling evolution at arbitrary numbers of gene positions with arbitrary dominance and epistatic relations, mode of inheritance, genetic linkage, and recombination. We show that the approach is conceptually analogous to social evolutionary methodology, which focuses on selection acting on associated individuals. In doing so, we (1) make explicit the links between the multilocus methodology and the foundations of social evolution theory, namely, Price's theorem and Hamilton's rule; (2) relate the multilocus approach to levels-of-selection and neighbor-modulated-fitness approaches in social evolution; (3) highlight the equivalence between genetical hitchhiking and kin selection; (4) demonstrate that the multilocus methodology allows for social evolutionary analyses involving coevolution of multiple traits and genetical associations between nonrelatives, including individuals of different species; (5) show that this methodology helps solve problems of dynamic sufficiency in social evolution theory; (6) form links between invasion criteria in multilocus systems and Hamilton's rule of kin selection; (7) illustrate the generality and exactness of Hamilton's rule, which has previously been described as an approximate, heuristic result.

Citations

• Allele-Frequency Change in a Class-Structured Population

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