Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, United Kingdom.
J Theor Biol. 2011 Sep 7;284(1):125-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2011.06.028. Epub 2011 Jun 29.
Why did Darwin fail to develop his insights on kin selection into a proper theory of social adaptation? One suggestion has been that his inadequate understanding of heredity kept the problem out of focus. Here, I determine whether it is possible to develop a quantitative theory of kin selection upon the assumption of blending inheritance. I find that, whilst Hamilton's rule of kin selection can be readily derived under the assumption of blending inheritance, this mechanism complicates the computation of relatedness coefficients, and can even cause them to fluctuate over generations. Nevertheless, I show that the ultimate criterion for selection to favour any social trait - i.e. a time-average of Hamilton's rule - remains the same as under particulate inheritance. By eliminating the gene from the theory of kin selection, I clarify the role that it plays in the theory of social adaptation.
为什么达尔文未能将其关于亲缘选择的见解发展成一种合适的社会适应理论？有一种观点认为，他对遗传的理解不足使得这个问题无法得到关注。在这里，我假设混合遗传，确定是否有可能在亲缘选择的假设下发展出一种定量理论。我发现，虽然在混合遗传的假设下，可以很容易地推导出亲缘选择的汉密尔顿规则，但这种机制会使亲属系数的计算变得复杂，甚至会导致它们在几代之间波动。然而，我表明，有利于任何社会特征的选择的最终标准——即汉密尔顿规则的时间平均值——与颗粒遗传下的标准相同。通过从亲缘选择理论中消除基因，我澄清了它在社会适应理论中的作用。
