Population genetics of gene function

TL;DR

This paper explores how independent variations in phenotype lifetimes and fertility can qualitatively alter population equilibrium, extending population genetics models to better understand biological functions.

Contribution

It introduces a mathematical relation linking phenotype lifetime ratios to neutral genetic variation, enhancing population-genetical characterization of biological function.

Findings

Differentiating phenotype lifetimes affects population equilibrium.

A new mathematical relation connects survival ratios with genetic variation.

The work extends theoretical models of population genetics.

Abstract

This paper shows that differentiating the lifetimes of two phenotypes independently from their fertility can lead to a qualitative change in the equilibrium of a population: since survival and reproduction are distinct functional aspects of an organism, this observation contributes to extend the population-genetical characterisation of biological function. To support this statement a mathematical relation is derived to link the lifetime ratio T_1/T_2, which parametrizes the different survival ability of two phenotypes, with population variables that quantify the amount of neutral variation underlying a population's phenotypic distribution.