Contributed by Marcus W. Feldman, December 22, 2017 (sent for review November 2, 2017; reviewed by Hamish G. Spencer and Mark M. Tanaka)
Evolutionary dynamics of phenotypes in populations depend on how the traits are transmitted across generations and how the environments that cause selection on the traits fluctuate over time. We show that, under periodically fluctuating selection, a gene that increases the rate of vertical transmission is disfavored when the periods are short but approaches an intermediate stable rate for longer periods. This stable rate differs markedly from the rate that maximizes the geometric mean fitness. The evolution of learning rules thus differs qualitatively from the evolution of genetically modified rules of genetic transmission.
The evolution and maintenance of social learning, in competition with individual learning, under fluctuating selection have been well-studied in the theory of cultural evolution. Here, we study competition between vertical and oblique cultural transmission of a dichotomous phenotype under constant, periodically cycling, and randomly fluctuating selection. Conditions are derived for the existence of a stable polymorphism in a periodically cycling selection regime. Under such a selection regime, the fate of a genetic modifier of the rate of vertical transmission depends on the length of the cycle and the strength of selection. In general, the evolutionarily stable rate of vertical transmission differs markedly from the rate that maximizes the geometric mean fitness of the population. The evolution of rules of transmission has dramatically different dynamics from the more frequently studied modifiers of recombination, mutation, or migration.
Author contributions: Y.R., U.L., and M.W.F. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.
Reviewers: H.G.S., University of Otago; and M.M.T., University of New South Wales.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1719171115/-/DCSupplemental.
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