IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/thpobi/v104y2015icp59-67.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the interpretation and relevance of the Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection

Author

Listed:
  • Ewens, Warren J.
  • Lessard, Sabin

Abstract

The attempt to understand the statement, and then to find the interpretation, of Fisher’s “Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection†caused problems for generations of population geneticists. Price’s (1972) paper was the first to lead to an understanding of the statement of the theorem. The theorem shows (in the discrete-time case) that the so-called “partial change†in mean fitness of a population between a parental generation and an offspring generation is the parental generation additive genetic variance in fitness divided by the parental generation mean fitness. In the continuous-time case the partial rate of change in mean fitness is equal to the parental generation additive genetic variance in fitness with no division by the mean fitness. This “partial change†has been interpreted by some as the change in mean fitness due to changes in gene frequency, and by others as the change in mean fitness due to natural selection. (Fisher variously used both interpretations.) In this paper we discuss these interpretations of the theorem. We indicate why we are unhappy with both. We also discuss the long-term relevance of the Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection, again reaching a negative assessment. We introduce and discuss the concept of genic evolutionary potential. We finally review an optimizing theorem that involves changes in gene frequency, the additive genetic variance in fitness and the mean fitness itself, all of which are involved in the Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection, and which is free of the difficulties in interpretation of the Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection.

Suggested Citation

  • Ewens, Warren J. & Lessard, Sabin, 2015. "On the interpretation and relevance of the Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 59-67.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:104:y:2015:i:c:p:59-67
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2015.07.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040580915000696
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tpb.2015.07.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Smith, Eric, 2024. "Beyond fitness: The information imparted in population states by selection throughout lifecycles," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 86-117.
    2. Lessard, Sabin & Li, Cong & Zheng, Xiu-Deng & Tao, Yi, 2021. "Inclusive fitness and Hamilton’s rule in a stochastic environment," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 91-99.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:104:y:2015:i:c:p:59-67. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/intelligence .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.