ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2011
Kinship, greenbeards, and runaway social selection in the evolution of social insect cooperation.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Genome of the green-head ant, Rhytidoponera metallica, reveals mechanisms of toxin evolution in a genetically hyper-diverse eusocial species.Genome biology · 2025Article
- Intra-colony venom diversity contributes to maintaining eusociality in a cooperatively breeding ant.BMC biology · 2023Article
- Morphology of Nasonov and Tergal Glands inInsects · 2022Article
- Population level consequences of facultatively cooperative behaviour in a stochastic environment.The Journal of animal ecology · 2022Article
- Antagonistic interactions subdue inter-species green-beard cooperation in bacteria.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2020Article
- Extreme offspring ornamentation in American coots is favored by selection within families, not benefits to conspecific brood parasites.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Partner choice correlates with fine scale kin structuring in the paper wasp Polistes dominula.PloS one · 2019Article
- Rebel honeybee workers have a tendency to become intraspecific reproductive parasites.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
- Indirect reciprocity with negative assortment and limited information can promote cooperation.Journal of theoretical biology · 2018Article
- Models of social evolution: can we do better to predict 'who helps whom to achieve what'?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- Correlated pay-offs are key to cooperation.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- Genes associated with ant social behavior show distinct transcriptional and evolutionary patterns.eLife · 2015Article
- Intracolonial genetic variation affects reproductive skew and colony productivity during colony foundation in a parthenogenetic termite.BMC evolutionary biology · 2014Article
- Kin selection, species richness and community.Biology letters · 2013Article
- Sexual selection is a form of social selection.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2012Review
- In the light of evolution V: cooperation and conflict.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2011Article
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Abstract
Social Hymenoptera have played a leading role in development and testing of kin selection theory. Inclusive fitness models, following from Hamilton's rule, successfully predict major life history characteristics, such as biased sex investment ratios and conflict over parentage of male offspring. However, kin selection models poorly predict patterns of caste-biasing nepotism and reproductive skew within groups unless kin recognition constraints or group-level selection is also invoked. These successes and failures mirror the underlying kin recognition mechanisms. With reliable environmental cues, such as the sex of offspring or the origin of male eggs, predictions are supported. When only genetic recognition cues are potentially available, predictions are not supported. Mathematical simulations demonstrate that these differing mechanisms for determining kinship produce very different patterns of behavior. Decisions based on environmental cues for relatedness result in a robust mixture of cooperation and noncooperation depending on whether or not Hamilton's rule is met. In contrast, cooperation evolves under a wider range of conditions and to higher frequencies with genetic kin recognition as shared greenbeard traits. This "excess of niceness" matches the existing patterns in caste bias and reproductive skew; individuals often help others at an apparent cost to their inclusive fitness. The results further imply a potential for greenbeard-type kin recognition to create arbitrary runaway social selection for shared genetic traits. Suggestive examples in social evolution may be alloparental care and unicoloniality in ants. Differences in kin recognition mechanisms also can have consequences for maintenance of advantageous genetic diversity within populations.
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