Adaptation and the cost of complexity. Export

@article{Orr2000, abstract = {Adaptation is characterized by the movement of a population toward a many-character optimum, movement that results in an increase in fitness. Here I calculate the rate at which fitness increases during adaptation and describe the curve giving fitness versus time as a population approaches an optimum in Fisher's model of adaptation. The results identify several factors affecting the speed of adaptation. One of the most important is organismal complexity--complex organisms adapt more slowly than simple ones when using mutations of the same phenotypic size. Thus, as Fisher foresaw, organisms pay a kind of cost of complexity. However, the magnitude of this cost is considerably larger than Fisher's analysis suggested. Indeed the rate of adaptation declines at least as fast as n-1, where n is the number of independent characters or dimensions comprising an organism. The present results also suggest that one can define an effective number of dimensions characterizing an adapting species.}, address = {Department of Biology, University of Rochester, New York 14627, USA. aorr@uhura.cc.rochester.edu}, author = {Orr, H. A.}, citeulike-article-id = {478534}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10937178}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=10937178}, issn = {0014-3820}, journal = {Evolution Int J Org Evolution}, keywords = {a\_exam, evolution, fisher}, month = {February}, number = {1}, pages = {13--20}, posted-at = {2006-01-23 20:54:41}, priority = {2}, title = {Adaptation and the cost of complexity.}, url = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10937178}, volume = {54}, year = {2000} }

TY - JOUR ID - Orr2000 L3 - citeulike-article-id:478534 N2 - Adaptation is characterized by the movement of a population toward a many-character optimum, movement that results in an increase in fitness. Here I calculate the rate at which fitness increases during adaptation and describe the curve giving fitness versus time as a population approaches an optimum in Fisher's model of adaptation. The results identify several factors affecting the speed of adaptation. One of the most important is organismal complexity--complex organisms adapt more slowly than simple ones when using mutations of the same phenotypic size. Thus, as Fisher foresaw, organisms pay a kind of cost of complexity. However, the magnitude of this cost is considerably larger than Fisher's analysis suggested. Indeed the rate of adaptation declines at least as fast as n-1, where n is the number of independent characters or dimensions comprising an organism. The present results also suggest that one can define an effective number of dimensions characterizing an adapting species. IS - 1 JF - Evolution Int J Org Evolution SN - 0014-3820 AD - Department of Biology, University of Rochester, New York 14627, USA. aorr@uhura.cc.rochester.edu EP - 20 TI - Adaptation and the cost of complexity. VL - 54 SP - 13 KW - a_exam KW - evolution KW - fisher AU - Orr, HA PY - 2000/02// UR - http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10937178 ER -