Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
J Evol Biol. 2012 Feb;25(2):227-43. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02431.x. Epub 2011 Dec 8.
George Williams defined an evolutionary unit as hereditary information for which the selection bias between competing units dominates the informational decay caused by imperfect transmission. In this article, I extend Williams' approach to show that the ratio of selection bias to transmission bias provides a unifying framework for diverse biological problems. Specific examples include Haldane and Lande's mutation-selection balance, Eigen's error threshold and quasispecies, Van Valen's clade selection, Price's multilevel formulation of group selection, Szathmáry and Demeter's evolutionary origin of primitive cells, Levin and Bull's short-sighted evolution of HIV virulence, Frank's timescale analysis of microbial metabolism and Maynard Smith and Szathmáry's major transitions in evolution. The insights from these diverse applications lead to a deeper understanding of kin selection, group selection, multilevel evolutionary analysis and the philosophical problems of evolutionary units and individuality.
乔治·威廉姆斯将进化单位定义为具有竞争单位的选择偏差主导信息传递不完美引起的信息衰减的遗传信息。在本文中，我扩展了威廉姆斯的方法，表明选择偏差与传递偏差的比率为各种生物学问题提供了一个统一的框架。具体例子包括 Haldane 和 Lande 的突变选择平衡、Eigen 的错误阈值和准种、Van Valen 的进化枝选择、Price 的群体选择多层次表述、Szathmáry 和 Demeter 的原始细胞进化起源、Levin 和 Bull 的 HIV 毒力短视进化、Frank 的微生物代谢时间尺度分析以及 Maynard Smith 和 Szathmáry 的进化中的重大转变。这些多样化应用的见解使我们对亲属选择、群体选择、多层次进化分析以及进化单位和个体的哲学问题有了更深入的了解。
