PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Xiang-Yi Li
AU  - Shun Kurokawa
AU  - Stefano Giaimo
AU  - Arne Traulsen
TI  - How life history can sway the fixation probability of mutants
AID  - 10.1101/050914
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 050914
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/28/050914.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/04/28/050914.full
AB  - In this work, we study the effects of demographic structure on evolutionary dynamics, when selection acts on reproduction, survival, or both. In contrast with the previously discovered pattern that the fixation probability of a neutral mutant decreases while population becomes younger, we show that a mutant with constant selective advantage may have a maximum or a minimum of the fixation probability in populations with an intermediate fraction of young individuals. This highlights the importance of life history and demographic structure in studying evolutionary dynamics. We also illustrate the fundamental differences between selection on reproduction and on survival when age structure is present. In addition, we evaluate the relative importance of size and structure of the population in determining the fixation probability of the mutant. Our work lays the foundation for studying also density and frequency dependent effects in populations when demographic structures cannot be neglected.