title: How Life History Can Sway the Fixation Probability of Mutants.
abstract: In this work, we study the effects of demographic structure on evolutionary dynamics when selection acts on reproduction, survival, or both. In contrast to the previously discovered pattern that the fixation probability of a neutral mutant decreases while the population becomes younger, we show that a mutant with a constant selective advantage may have a maximum or a minimum of the fixation probability in populations with an intermediate fraction of young individuals. This highlights the importance of life history and demographic structure in studying evolutionary dynamics. We also illustrate the fundamental differences between selection on reproduction and selection on survival when age structure is present. In addition, we evaluate the relative importance of size and structure of the population in determining the fixation probability of the mutant. Our work lays the foundation for also studying density- and frequency-dependent effects in populations when demographic structures cannot be neglected.
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Theory, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, 24306 Plön, Germany.
authors.forename: Xiang-Yi
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8662-0865
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Division of Natural Resource Economics, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, 606-8502, Japan.
authors.forename: Shun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kurokawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Theory, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, 24306 Plön, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Giaimo
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Theory, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, 24306 Plön, Germany traulsen@evolbio.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Traulsen
mesh_terms: D003710:Demography; D040961:Genetic Drift; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011336:Probability; D012098:Reproduction / Q000235:genetics*; D012641:Selection, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: demography; evolutionary dynamics; population structure; reproduction; survival