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MathBio Seminar

Tuesday, February 21, 2023 - 10:00am

Arne Traulsen

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology

Location

University of Pennsylvania

Online only via Zoom

Zoom Meeting https://upenn.zoom.us/j/99792332298?pwd=R1JXYmh2aGI1OUhuUzg5VFhuU0M0Zz09 Meeting ID: 997 9233 2298 Passcode: 657898

Evolutionary dynamics can be strongly affected by spatial structure – even in the case of constant fitness values. A popular way to model such spatial structure are networks, where each node represents an individual and offspring can be placed to other sites via the links. How does such a network affect the probability of a new mutation to take over the entire population? And how does it alter the time this process is expected to take? Of particular interest are structures that increase the probability that advantageous mutations take over. Such amplifiers are surprisingly abundant among all networks. However, they do not necessarily maximize the fitness under long term evolution. Applying these models to real populations typically requires that each node is a subpopulation – leading to a different class of models. Also, in the long run the conventional probability of fixation is insufficient to describe the dynamics and one has to take into account the process of continuously generated mutations.