model for the generation and transmission of variations in evolution

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 111; no. 19; pp. E1940 - E1949
• Main Authors: Rivoire, Olivier, Leibler, Stanislas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 13.05.2014; National Acad Sciences
• Series: PNAS Plus
• Subjects: Adaptation, Physiological - genetics; Animals; Biodiversity; Biological Evolution; Biological Physics; Biological Sciences; Epigenetics; Epigenomics - methods; Evolution; genetic traits; Genetic Variation; Genetics; Genotype; Humans; Life Sciences; Mathematical models; Models, Genetic; natural selection; Phenotype; Physical Sciences; Physics; PNAS Plus; Populations and Evolution; quantitative genetics; reproduction; Selection, Genetic - genetics; Stochastic control theory; acquired characteristics; heredity; Darwinian evolution; epigenetics; Lamarckism
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1323901111

The inheritance of characteristics induced by the environment has often been opposed to the theory of evolution by natural selection. However, although evolution by natural selection requires new heritable traits to be produced and transmitted, it does not prescribe, per se, the mechanisms by which this is operated. The mechanisms of inheritance are not, however, unconstrained, because they are themselves subject to natural selection. We introduce a schematic, analytically solvable mathematical model to compare the adaptive value of different schemes of inheritance. Our model allows for variations to be inherited, randomly produced, or environmentally induced, and, irrespectively, to be either transmitted or not during reproduction. The adaptation of the different schemes for processing variations is quantified for a range of fluctuating environments, following an approach that links quantitative genetics with stochastic control theory.