Franks Daniel W, Sherratt Thomas N
Department of Biology, York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK.
J Theor Biol. 2007 Feb 21;244(4):631-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2006.09.019. Epub 2006 Sep 23.
The relative sizes of phenotypic mutations contributing to evolutionary change has long been the subject of debate. We describe how mimicry research can shed light on this debate, and frame mimicry studies within the general context of macromutationism and micromutationism, and punctuated versus gradual evolution. Balogh and Leimar [Müllerian mimicry: an examination of Fisher's theory of gradual evolutionary change. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 272, 2269-2275] have recently used a model to readdress the question of whether or not mimicry evolves gradually along a single dimension. We extend their approach, and present the first model to consider the effect of predator generalization along multiple components on the evolution of mimicry. We find that the gradual evolution of mimicry becomes increasingly less likely as the number of signal components increases, unless predators generalize widely over all components. However, we show that the contemporary two-step hypothesis (punctuated evolution followed by gradual refinement) can explain the evolution of Müllerian mimicry under all tested conditions. Thus, although the gradual evolution of mimicry is possible, the two-step hypothesis appears more generally applicable.
长期以来，对进化变化有贡献的表型突变的相对大小一直是争论的焦点。我们描述了拟态研究如何为这场争论提供线索，并将拟态研究置于宏观突变论和微观突变论以及间断进化与渐变进化的总体背景中。巴洛格和莱马尔[缪勒拟态：对费希尔渐变进化变化理论的检验。《英国皇家学会学报B辑：生物科学》272, 2269 - 2275]最近使用一个模型重新探讨了拟态是否沿单一维度逐渐进化的问题。我们扩展了他们的方法，并提出了第一个考虑捕食者对多个信号成分的泛化对拟态进化影响的模型。我们发现，随着信号成分数量的增加，拟态的渐变进化越来越不可能发生，除非捕食者对所有成分都有广泛的泛化。然而，我们表明当代的两步假说（间断进化后接着是逐渐细化）可以解释在所有测试条件下缪勒拟态的进化。因此，虽然拟态的渐变进化是可能的，但两步假说似乎更具普遍适用性。
