Spontaneous genetic clustering in populations of competing organisms
Populations and Evolution
2012-11-02 v2 Statistical Mechanics
Biological Physics
Abstract
We introduce and analyse an individual-based evolutionary model, in which a population of genetically diverse organisms compete with each other for limited resources. Through theoretical analysis and stochastic simulations, we show that the model exhibits a pattern-forming instability which is highly amplified by the effects of demographic noise, leading to the spontaneous formation of genotypic clusters. This mechanism supports the thesis that stochasticity has a central role in the formation and coherence of species.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1207.1615,
title = {Spontaneous genetic clustering in populations of competing organisms},
author = {Tim Rogers and Alan J. McKane and Axel G. Rossberg},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1207.1615},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
9 pages, 3 figures, 2 appendices