The effect of the fitness gradient – Jakub Svoboda

Abstract:

Evolutionary biology studies populations of reproducing individuals and how their composition changes over time.
An important question is the fixation probability of a single mutant that attempts to invade a homogeneous population.
Many real populations experience gradients of chemicals or nutrients that cause mutations to be beneficial in some spatial regions and harmful in others.
We will examine the fixation probability of a mutant placed on a simple one-dimensional spatial structure that experiences such a gradient.
The mutant’s fitness varies linearly but is on average 1, whereas the resident’s fitness is constant and equal to 1.
We will prove nonintuitive results about the fixation probability of mutants.