2001/06/19 by Edmund D. Brodie, Aneil F. Agrawal · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Animal Behavior and Reproduction #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Plant and animal studies #Aposematism #Biology #Predation #Trait #Mutation #Offspring #Evolutionary biology #Selection (genetic algorithm) #Gene #Genetics #Predator #Ecology #Computer science #Artificial intelligence #Pregnancy
paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.141075998
openalex publication_date 2001/06/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Aposematic signals that warn predators of the noxious qualities of prey gain their greatest selective advantage when predators have already experienced similar signals. Existing theory explains how such signals can spread through selective advantage after they are present at some critical frequency, but is unclear about how warning signals can be selectively advantageous when the trait is initially rare (i.e., when it first arises through mutation) and predators are naive. When aposematism is controlled by a maternal effect gene, the difficulty of initial rarity may be overcome. Unlike a zygotically expressed gene, a maternally expressed aposematism gene will be hidden from selection because it is not phenotypically expressed in the first individual with the mutation. Furthermore, the first individual carrying the new mutation will produce an entire family of aposematic offspring, thereby providing an immediate fitness advantage to this gene.