BIOL 180 Chapter 8: BIOL 180 – Reading Notes 8
93
BIOL 180 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
93 documents
Document Summary
Altruism has a fitness cost to the individual and a fitness benefit to the recipient o. Self-sacrificing behavior: decreases an individual"s ability to produce offspring, helps others produce more offspring. Hamilton"s rule: natural selection favor the evolution of self-sacrificing behavior. C = fitness cost of the altruistic act to the actor. B = fitness benefit to the recipient. R = coefficient of relatedness: how closely the actor and recipient are related. Fraction of alleles in the actor and recipient that are identical by descent (inherited by the same ancestor. Hamilton"s rule: altruistic behavior is most likely when 3 conditions are met. Fitness benefits are high for the recipient (high b) Altruist and recipient are close relatives (high r) Fitness costs to the altruist are low (low c: when hamilton"s rule holds, alleles associated with altruistic behavior will be favored by natural selection. Close relatives are very likely to have copies of the altruistic alleles.
