Related papers: The evolution of queen control over worker reprodu…
Workers in insect societies are sometimes observed to kill male eggs of other workers, a phenomenon known as worker policing. We perform a mathematical analysis of the evolutionary dynamics of policing. We investigate the selective forces…
This work explores the relationship between altruism and the genetic system of arrhenotoky through an evolutionary game theory (EGT)-inspired lens, using a dynamic model of beehive populations consisting of three castes: workers, drones,…
Dominance and subordinate behaviours are important ingredients in the social organizations of group living animals. Behavioural observations on the two eusocial species \textit{Ropalidia marginata} and \textit{Ropalidia cyathiformis}…
Social insect colonies can be seen as a distinct form of biological organization because they function as superorganisms. Understanding how natural selection acts on the emergence and maintenance of these colonies remains a major question…
The emergence of eusocial species is both very rare in evolutionary history and results in remarkably successful species. By inverting an agent based model, agent rules are discovered that display behaviors characteristic of eusocial…
The question as to why most higher organisms reproduce sexually has remained open despite extensive research, and has been called "the queen of problems in evolutionary biology". Theories dating back to Weismann have suggested that the key…
The puzzle associated with the cost of sex, an old problem of evolutionary biology, is discussed here from the point of view of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The results suggest, in a simplified model, that the prevalence of sexual…
Feedbacks between evolution and ecology are ubiquitous, with ecological interactions determining which mutants are successful, and these mutants in turn modifying community structure. We study the evolutionary dynamics of several ecological…
Queues formed by social wasps to inherit the dominant position in the nest are analyzed by using a transient quasi-birth-and-death process. We show that the extended nest life time due to division of labor between queen and helpers has a…
Population expansions trigger many biomedical and ecological transitions, from tumor growth to invasions of non-native species. Although population spreading often selects for more invasive phenotypes, we show that this outcome is far from…
Sex is considered as an evolutionary paradox, since its evolutionary advantage does not necessarily overcome the two fold cost of sharing half of one's offspring's genome with another member of the population. Here we demonstrate that…
In this paper, we use an adaptive modeling framework to model and study how nutritional status (measured by the protein to carbohydrate ratio) may regulate population dynamics and foraging task allocation of social insect colonies.…
Sexual reproductive behavior has a necessary social coordination component as willing and capable partners must both be in the right place at the right time. It has recently been demonstrated that many social organizations that support…
The evolution of parasite virulence and host defences is affected by population structure. This effect has been confirmed in studies focusing on large spatial scales, whereas the importance of local structure is not well understood.…
Despite the wealth of empirical and theoretical studies, the origin and maintenance of cooperation is still an evolutionary riddle. In this context, ecological life-history traits which affect the efficiency of selection may play a role,…
We discuss a simple model of co-evolution. In order to emphasise the effect of interaction between individuals the entire population is subjected to the same physical environment. Species are emergent structures and extinction, origination…
The prevalence of sexual reproduction ("sex") in eukaryotes is an enigma of evolutionary biology. Sex increases genetic variation only tells its long-term superiority in essence. The accumulation of harmful mutations causes an immediate and…
The bit-string Penna Model is used to simulate the competition between an asexual parthenogenetic and a sexual population sharing the same environment. A new-born of either population can mutate and become a part of the other with some…
Many species of microbes cooperate by producing public goods from which they collectively benefit. However, these populations are under the risk of being taken over by cheating mutants that do not contribute to the pool of public goods.…
The evolution of cooperation often depends upon population structure, yet nearly all models of cooperation implicitly assume that this structure remains static. This is a simplifying assumption, because most organisms possess genetic traits…