Week 6 - Co-evolution

Question 1

What is coevolution?

Answer 1

Coevolution are the reciprocal changes triggered by selected cause by other populations. In host-parasite systems, hosts evolve to reduce damage caused by parasites, while parasites evolve to maximise their fitness by exploiting their hosts - these changes can be mirrored in their phylogenetic trees.

Question 2

What is a selective sweep?

Answer 2

a selective sweep is the process through which a new beneficial mutation that increases its frequency and becomes fixed in the population leads to the reduction or elimination of genetic variation among nucleotide sequences that are near the mutation.

Question 3

What is coevolution by negative frequency dependent selection?

Answer 3

Frequency-dependent selection is an evolutionary process by which the fitness of a phenotype or genotype depends on the phenotype or genotype composition of a given population. In negative frequency-dependent selection, the fitness of a phenotype or genotype decreases as it becomes more common. This is an example of balancing selection. Inverse fitness relationship - what is good for the host is bad for the parasite