BIOC54H3 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Adaptationism, Pleiotropy, Coevolution
9 May 2012
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Altruism: self-sacrificing behavior where an individual permanently loses opportunities to produce offspring of its own because it helped another. Possible explanation: by helping your relatives, you are increasing your own fitness if their young survive. Coefficient of relatedness: the probability that an allele in one individual is present in another because they both inherited it from a common ancestor. Kin selection: altruism supplied to relatives other than offspring. Direct fitness: fitness gained through personal reproduction. Indirect fitness: fitness gained by helping non descendent kin survive (ie. kin selection) Inclusive fitness: an individual"s total contribution of genes to the next generation as a result of both of the above. Hamilton"s rule: a rare allele for altruism will become more common only if the indirect fitness gained by the altruist is greater than the direct fitness it loses as a result of its self sacrificing behavior.
