Lecture 13: Kin Selection Flashcards
Explaining behaviour on different levels
Proximate: Ontogeny, sensory development, triggers, learning
Ultimate: Phylogeny, fitness effects, coevolution -> Used by ecologists
Mechanisms and levels of selection
Natural selection
Sexual selection
Kin selection (Verwandtenselektion)
Kin selection in the origin of species by Darwin
-…selection may be applied to the family, as well as to the individual, and may thus gain the desired end. Breeders of cattle wish the flesh and fat to be well marbled together. An animal thus characterised has been slaughtered, but the breeder has gone with confidence to the same stock and has succeeded.“
-> nowadays it is known that “the family” and “stock” are genetically a kin group.
Natural selection on the individual level by Darwin
-Individual variation, partly heritable
-Limited Resources, competition
-Differential contribution of varieties to next generation
-Evolutionary change of a species
Consequence: Adaptation to an environment
Natural Selection on gene level by Richard Dawkins 1976
Variation: genes determine behaviour, in two or more alleles
Limited resources:
- competition among alleles
- co- operation among genes
Result: different numbers of offspring per allele
Consequence: Change in allele frequency in the population
Dawkins: „The Selfish Gene“ 1976
-Individuen nur als Vehikel der Genselektion
Got criticized for it
Co-operation:
-mutualism (both species benefit)
-altruism (a behaviour that benefits a recipient and has costs to the donor)
-nepotism (Vetternwirtschaft)
How can behaviours be explained, which are apparently detrimental to own fitness?
- siblicide (killing of siblings to increases own chances of survival)
- Infanticide (killing of offsprings (through parents))
Potential explanations for social behaviour
-kin selection
-group selection
-serves the survival of the species
-reciprocity
Inclusive fitness (Hamilton 1963, 1964 & Maynard Smith 1964)
Inclusive fitness (Gesamtfitness) = direct fitness + indirect fitness
-direct: offspring
-Indirect: Additional offspring of relatives, which are possible only through an investment of the focal individual
-Fitness value of the offspring depends on the relatedness (measured as index of relatedness (r))
Coefficient of relatedness
Hamiltons rule & Altruism
Altruism is favoured by natural selection when B/C > 1/r
Kin selection
Conditions for the increase of altruistic genes in a population:
Benefits (recipient) * r > Costs (donor)
r- Realtionship index
Cooperative breeding
Helpers postpone own reproduction or do not breed a second time
Cooperative breeding:
Long tailed tits by Russell & Hatchwell 2001
-Animals with failed broods help successful others to raise their broods
-Helpers are often relatives
Cooperative breeding:
Pied kingfisher (Reyer 1984) ??
three breeding tactics in he first year of life:
- delay breeding („delayers“) -> worst balance, no indirect fitness
-helping unrelated birds (secondary helpers) -> often (10/27) replace one of the parents they helped
- helping parents (primary helpers):
high effort: 3x more food than secondary
inclusivefitness is the highest
lower chance of survival to next year AND attract partner
Eusocial insects (Hymenoptera)
Darwin noticed this problem
Reproductive altruism:
- Potentially fertile workers abstain from producing their own offspring
-to help the queen (their mother) raising offspring (their sisters)
Haplodiploidy -> Females have higher kin (0.75 where human has 0.5)
workers remove eggs laid by other workers, because they are more related to the queen’s eggs than to the worker-laid eggs.
Other perspective: Superorganism -> extended phenotype from queen