Limits on the Evolutionary Rates of Biological Traits
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
This paper focuses on the maximum speed at which biological evolution can occur. I derive inequalities that limit the rate of evolutionary processes driven by natural selection, mutations, or genetic drift. These rate limits link the variability in a population to evolutionary rates. In particular, high variances in the fitness of a population and of a quantitative trait allow for fast changes in the trait’s average. In contrast, low variability makes a trait less susceptible to random changes due to genetic drift. The results in this article generalize Fisher’s fundamental theorem of natural selection to dynamics that allow for mutations and genetic drift, via trade-of relations that constrain the evolutionary rates of arbitrary traits. The rate limits can be used to probe questions in various evolutionary biology and ecology settings. They apply, for instance, to trait dynamics within or across species or to the evolution of bacteria strains. They apply to any quantitative trait, e.g., from species’ weights to the lengths of DNA strands.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR)
- DOE Contract Number:
- 89233218CNA000001; AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 2377304
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-24-22734
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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