Evolutionary games and quasispecies

TL;DR

This paper explores how populations of sequences evolve under mutation and frequency-dependent selection using a mathematical model based on the hawk-dove game, revealing unique quasispecies properties.

Contribution

It introduces a nonlinear reaction-diffusion model for evolutionary dynamics with frequency-dependent fitness, highlighting differences from fixed fitness landscapes.

Findings

Stationary distribution forms a quasispecies with distinct properties

Frequency-dependent fitness alters traditional quasispecies structure

Model provides insights into genomic regulation evolution

Abstract

We discuss a population of sequences subject to mutations and frequency-dependent selection, where the fitness of a sequence depends on the composition of the entire population. This type of dynamics is crucial to understand the evolution of genomic regulation. Mathematically, it takes the form of a reaction-diffusion problem that is nonlinear in the population state. In our model system, the fitness is determined by a simple mathematical game, the hawk-dove game. The stationary population distribution is found to be a quasispecies with properties different from those which hold in fixed fitness landscapes.