Network growth for enhanced natural selection

TL;DR

This paper introduces a randomized network growth mechanism that creates structured populations with higher fixation probabilities, supporting the idea that natural selection can be enhanced in naturally occurring population structures.

Contribution

A novel randomized network growth method inspired by advantageous topologies that increases fixation probability in structured populations.

Findings

Structured populations with higher fixation probabilities were demonstrated through simulations.

The network growth mechanism can surpass unstructured populations in promoting natural selection.

Results support the potential for natural structures to enhance natural selection.

Abstract

Natural selection and random drift are competing phenomena for explaining the evolution of populations. Combining a highly fit mutant with a population structure that improves the odds that the mutant spreads through the whole population tips the balance in favor of natural selection. The probability that the spread occurs, known as the fixation probability, depends heavily on how the population is structured. Certain topologies, albeit highly artificially contrived, have been shown to exist that favor fixation. We introduce a randomized mechanism for network growth that is loosely inspired in some of these topologies' key properties and demonstrate, through simulations, that it is capable of giving rise to structured populations for which the fixation probability significantly surpasses that of an unstructured population. This discovery provides important support to the notion that natural selection can be enhanced over random drift in naturally occurring population structures.