Information about Fisher's Fundamental Theorem Of Natural Selection
In population genetics, R. A. Fisher's fundamental theorem of natural selection was originally stated as:
Or, in more modern terminology:
The American George R. Price showed in 1972 that Fisher's theorem was correct as stated, and that the proof was also correct, given a typo or two. Price showed the result was true, but did not find it to be of great significance. The sophistication that Price pointed out, and that had made understanding difficult, is that the theorem gives a formula for part of the change in gene frequency, and not for all of it. This is a part that can be said to be due to natural selection.
More recent work (reviewed in Grafen 2003) builds on Price's understanding in two ways. One aims to improve the theorem by completing it, i.e. by finding a formula for the whole of the change in gene frequency. The other argues that the partial change is indeed of great conceptual significance, and aims to extend similar partial change results into more and more general population genetic models.
Fisher's fundamental theorem is uncontroversial (Bolnick, 2007), but due to confounding factors, tests of it are quite rare. For a good example of this effect in a natural population, see (Bolnick, 2007).
Natural selection is the process by which favorable traits that are heritable become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable traits that are heritable become less
..... Click the link for more information.
Natural selection is the process by which favorable traits that are heritable become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable traits that are heritable become less
..... Click the link for more information.
- "The rate of increase in fitness of any organism at any time is equal to its genetic variance in fitness at that time."
Or, in more modern terminology:
- "The rate of increase in the mean fitness of any organism at any time ascribable to natural selection acting through changes in gene frequencies is exactly equal to its genic variance in fitness at that time". (A.W.F. Edwards 1994)
History
The theorem was first formulated by R. A. Fisher in his 1930 book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Fisher held that "It is not a little instructive that so similar a law should hold the supreme position among the biological sciences". However, for forty years it was misunderstood, it being read as saying that the average fitness of a population would always increase, and models showed this not to be the case. The misunderstanding can be seen largely as a result of Fisher's feud with the American geneticist Sewall Wright primarily about adaptive landscapes.The American George R. Price showed in 1972 that Fisher's theorem was correct as stated, and that the proof was also correct, given a typo or two. Price showed the result was true, but did not find it to be of great significance. The sophistication that Price pointed out, and that had made understanding difficult, is that the theorem gives a formula for part of the change in gene frequency, and not for all of it. This is a part that can be said to be due to natural selection.
More recent work (reviewed in Grafen 2003) builds on Price's understanding in two ways. One aims to improve the theorem by completing it, i.e. by finding a formula for the whole of the change in gene frequency. The other argues that the partial change is indeed of great conceptual significance, and aims to extend similar partial change results into more and more general population genetic models.
Fisher's fundamental theorem is uncontroversial (Bolnick, 2007), but due to confounding factors, tests of it are quite rare. For a good example of this effect in a natural population, see (Bolnick, 2007).
References
- Bolnick D. I. & Nosil, P. Natural Selection in Populations Subject to a Migration Load. Evolution, Advance access, doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2007.00179.xhttp://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2007.00179.x
- Brooks, D. R. & Wiley, E. O. Evolution as Entropy, Towards a unified theory of Biology. The University of Chicago Press, 1986.
- Edwards, A.W.F. (1994) The fundamental theorem of natural selection. Biological Reviews 69:443–474.
- Fisher, R.A. (1930). The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
- Frank, S.A. (1997) The Price Equation, Fisher's fundamental theorem, kin selection, and causal analysis. Evolution 51:1712-1729. Abstract - page for pdfs
- Frank, S.A. (1998) Foundation of Social Evolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Book's website ISBN 0-691-05934-9
- Frank, S.A. and Slatkin, M. (1992) Fisher's fundamental theorem of natural selection. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 7:92-95. abstract - pdfs
- Grafen, A. (2000) Developments of the Price equation and natural selection under uncertainty. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 267:1223–1227.
- Grafen, A. (2002) A first formal link between the Price equation and an optimisation program. Journal of Theoretical Biology 217:75–91.
- Grafen, A. (2003) Fisher the evolutionary biologist. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series D (The Statistician), 52: 319–329.
- Price, G.R. (1972). Fisher's "fundamental theorem" made clear. Annals of Human Genetics 36:129-140
- Kjellström, G. Evolution as a statistical optimization algorithm. Evolutionary Theory 11:105-117, January, 1996.
- Maynard Smith, J. Evolutionary Genetics. Oxford University Press, 1998.
- Mayr, E. What Evolution is. Basic Books, New York, 2001.
External links
- Grafen Fisher the evolutionary biologist http://users.ox.ac.uk/~grafen/cv/fisher.pdf
- http://www.peregrine.dk/subjects/FISH.HTM
- Error bounds for the fundamental and secondary theorems of natural selection
Topics in population genetics | |
|---|---|
| Key concepts | Hardy-Weinberg law • genetic linkage • linkage disequilibrium • Fisher's fundamental theorem • neutral theory |
| Selection | natural • sexual • artificial • ecological |
| Effects of selection on genomic variation | genetic hitchhiking • background selection |
| Genetic drift | small population size • population bottleneck • founder effect • coalescence |
| Founders | R.A. Fisher • J. B. S. Haldane • Sewall Wright |
| Related topics | evolution • microevolution • evolutionary game theory • fitness landscape • genetic genealogy |
| List of evolutionary biology topics | |
Population genetics is the study of the allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four evolutionary forces: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. It also takes account of population subdivision and population structure in space.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Ronald Fisher
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher
Born 17 January 1890
East Finchley, London , England
..... Click the link for more information.
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher
Born 17 January 1890
East Finchley, London , England
..... Click the link for more information.
theorem is a statement, often stated in natural language, that can be proved on the basis of explicitly stated or previously agreed assumptions. In logic, a theorem is a statement in a formal language that can be derived by applying rules and axioms from a deductive system.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Natural selection is the process by which favorable traits that are heritable become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable traits that are heritable become less
..... Click the link for more information.
Allele frequency is a measure of the relative frequency of an allele on a genetic locus in a population. Usually it is expressed as a proportion or a percentage. In population genetics, allele frequencies show the genetic diversity of a species population or equivalently the
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Anthony William Fairbank Edwards (born 1935) is a British statistician, geneticist, and evolutionary biologist. He is a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College and retired Professor of Biometry at the University of Cambridge, and holds both the ScD and LittD degrees. A pupil of R.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled until (UTC) due to vandalism.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or
..... Click the link for more information.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or
..... Click the link for more information.
Ronald Fisher
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher
Born 17 January 1890
East Finchley, London , England
..... Click the link for more information.
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher
Born 17 January 1890
East Finchley, London , England
..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s
1927 1928 1929 - 1930 - 1931 1932 1933
Year 1930 (MCMXXX
..... Click the link for more information.
1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s
1927 1928 1929 - 1930 - 1931 1932 1933
Year 1930 (MCMXXX
..... Click the link for more information.
The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection is a book by R.A. Fisher. It was first published in 1930 by Clarendon. It is one of the most important books of the modern evolutionary synthesis and is obligatorily cited in biology books. The great biologist W. D.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Sewall Green Wright ForMemRS (December 21, 1889 – March 3, 1988) was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory and also for his work on path analysis. With R. A. Fisher and J.B.S. Haldane, he was a founder of theoretical population genetics.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
In evolutionary biology, fitness landscapes or adaptive landscapes are used to visualize the relationship between genotypes (or phenotypes) and reproductive success. It is assumed that every genotype has a well defined replication rate (often referred to as fitness).
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
George R. Price (1922 – January 6, 1975) was an American population geneticist. Originally a physical chemist and later a science journalist, he moved to London in 1967, where he worked in theoretical biology at the Galton Laboratory, making three important contributions:
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Anthony William Fairbank Edwards (born 1935) is a British statistician, geneticist, and evolutionary biologist. He is a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College and retired Professor of Biometry at the University of Cambridge, and holds both the ScD and LittD degrees. A pupil of R.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection is a book by R.A. Fisher. It was first published in 1930 by Clarendon. It is one of the most important books of the modern evolutionary synthesis and is obligatorily cited in biology books. The great biologist W. D.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Evolution, the International Journal of Organic Evolution, is a monthly scientific journal that publishes significant new results of empirical or theoretical investigations concerning facts, processes, mechanics, or concepts of evolutionary phenomena and events.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Trends is a series of scientific journals owned by Elsevier that publish review articles in a range of areas of biology.
The Trends series was founded in 1976 with Trends in Biochemical Sciences (TIBS), rapidly followed by
..... Click the link for more information.
The Trends series was founded in 1976 with Trends in Biochemical Sciences (TIBS), rapidly followed by
..... Click the link for more information.
Proceedings of the Royal Society is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society of London.
Today, the Royal Society publishes two proceeding series:
..... Click the link for more information.
Today, the Royal Society publishes two proceeding series:
- Series A, which publishes research related to mathematical, physical and engineering sciences
..... Click the link for more information.
The Journal of Theoretical Biology is a scientific journal about theoretical biology; dealing with theoretical issues, as well as mathematical and computational aspects of biology.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society is a series of three peer-reviewed statistics journals published by Blackwell Publishing for the London-based Royal Statistical Society.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
George R. Price (1922 – January 6, 1975) was an American population geneticist. Originally a physical chemist and later a science journalist, he moved to London in 1967, where he worked in theoretical biology at the Galton Laboratory, making three important contributions:
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Annals of Human Genetics, formerly known as the Annals of Eugenics is a scientific journal concerning human genetics. The Annals of Eugenics was established in 1925 by Karl Pearson, the first Galton Professor, who earlier in 1901 had established
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Population genetics is the study of the allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four evolutionary forces: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. It also takes account of population subdivision and population structure in space.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Hardy–Weinberg principle is a relationship between the frequencies of alleles and the genotype of a population. The occurrence of a genotype, perhaps one associated with a disease, stays constant unless matings are non-random or inappropriate, or mutations accumulate.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Genetic linkage occurs when particular genetic loci or alleles for genes are inherited jointly. Genetic loci on the same chromosome are physically connected and tend to segregate together during meiosis, and are thus genetically linked.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Linkage disequilibrium is a term used in the study of population genetics for the non-random association of alleles at two or more loci, not necessarily on the same chromosome.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
The neutral theory of molecular evolution (also, simply the neutral theory of evolution) is an influential theory that was introduced with provocative effect by Motoo Kimura in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
selection. Under selection, individuals with advantageous or "adaptive" traits tend to be more successful than their peers reproductively--meaning they contribute more offspring to the succeeding generation than others do.
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
Natural selection is the process by which favorable traits that are heritable become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable traits that are heritable become less
..... Click the link for more information.
Sexual selection is the theory proposed by Charles Darwin that states that the frequency of traits can increase or decrease depending on the attractiveness of the bearer. Biologists today distinguish between "male to male combat" (it is usually males who fight), "mate choice"
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus
