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Concept
Kin selection
Summary
Kin selection is a process whereby natural selection favours a trait due to its positive effects on the reproductive success of an organism's relatives, even when at a cost to the organism's own survival and reproduction. Kin selection can lead to the evolution of altruistic behaviour. Kin selection is related to the concept of inclusive fitness, which combines the number of offspring produced with the number an individual can ensure the production of by supporting others (weighted by the relatedness between individuals). A broader definition of kin selection includes selection acting on interactions between individuals who share a gene of interest even if the gene is not shared due to common ancestry.
Charles Darwin discussed the concept of kin selection in his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, where he reflected on the puzzle of sterile social insects, such as honey bees, which leave reproduction to their mothers, arguing that a selection benefit to related organisms (the same "stock") would allow the evolution of a trait that confers the benefit but destroys an individual at the same time. J.B.S. Haldane in 1955 briefly referred to the principle in limited circumstances (Haldane famously jokes that he would willingly die for two brothers or eight cousins) and R.A. Fisher mentioned a similar principle even more briefly in 1930. However, it was not until 1964 that W.D. Hamilton generalised the concept and developed it mathematically (resulting in Hamilton's rule) that it began to be widely accepted and have its importance realised. The mathematical treatment was made more elegant in 1970 due to advances made by George R. Price. The term "kin selection" itself was first used by John Maynard Smith in 1964.
According to Hamilton's rule, kin selection causes genes to increase in frequency when the genetic relatedness of a recipient to an actor multiplied by the benefit to the recipient is greater than the reproductive cost to the actor. Hamilton proposed two mechanisms for kin selection.
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