Andy Gardner

..Our results show that interactions between the two types of fertility insurance reduce the extent of female bias predicted in the sex ratio, suggesting that fertility insurance may be more important than has previously been assumed...

..More generally, our results clarify the links between persistence and other bet-hedging or social behaviours...

..Phenotypic noise and social evolution in microbes have recently attracted huge interdisciplinary interest. A new study highlights the interaction between these phenomena and its implications for self-destructive cooperation...

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..Animals should benefit from the ability to recognise their kin, yet curiously this faculty is often absent. New theory confirms that genetic kin recognition is inherently unstable, explaining its rarity...

..More generally, our analysis illustrates the relative ease with which biological problems involving class structure can be solved using a kin selection approach to social evolution theory...

..In addition, we question the relation between modularity and evolvability in their simulations, suggesting that this modularity cannot confer enhanced evolvability...

..This emphasizes how biological details can fundamentally alter the qualitative nature of theoretical predictions made by models of parasite virulence...

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..Wilsonian); (iv) local competition can enhance the spread of spiteful greenbeards; and (v) the theory makes testable predictions for how the extent of spite should vary dependent upon population structure and average relatedness...

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..Furthermore, as assumed by theory, we show that this occurs because cheats are better able to exploit the cooperative siderophore production of other cells when they are physically closer to them...

..by the sterile workers of social insects, driven by genetics or ecology? Does spite really exist in nature? And, can altruism be favored between individuals who are not close kin but share a "greenbeard" gene for altruism?..

..Fourth, cooperative pyoverdin production is also shown to be favoured by kin selection in vivo (caterpillars), and results in more virulent infections. Finally, we briefly outline ongoing and future work using this experimental system...

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..Given the ubiquity of disturbances in nature, these results suggest that they may play a major role in the evolution of social traits in microbes...

..Given the drive to develop medical interventions that interfere with parasite mating, our data and theoretical models have important implications...

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..Although individuals are riven by internal conflict in their youth and middle age, they put their demons to rest in later life...

..Over the last 40 years, biologists have developed a theoretical framework that can explain cooperation at all these levels. Here, we summarise this theory, illustrate how it may be applied to real organisms and discuss future directions...

..We find that large groups and increased kin competition disfavor policing, and that policing is maintained more readily than it invades. Policing may be harder to evolve than previously thought...

..Malaria parasites provide a novel way to test evolutionary theory, and support the generality and power of a darwinian approach...

..Thus Price's equation provides not only a powerful conceptual aid, but also a means for testing hypotheses and for directing empirical research programmes...

..We draw examples from all areas, but especially recent work on humans and microbes...

..We find that nondispersing individuals are weakly favoured to indiscriminately help their neighbours, whereas dispersing individuals are more readily favoured to indiscriminately harm their neighbours...

..Understanding how, when, and why parasites employ apoptosis is central to targeting this process with interventions that are sustainable in the face of parasite evolution...

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..More generally, our results demonstrate the utility of a functional approach to communication...

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..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...

..We examine a simple two-locus model that allows for intermediate rates of recombination and inbreeding to show that increasing the effective recombination rate allows for the evolution of greater mutational robustness...

..This confirms that RC per se, as opposed to increased relatedness, has driven the observed increase in bacterial cooperation...

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..We find, quite generally, that plasticity promotes the evolution of higher levels of cooperation, in this case leading to reduced levels of both virulence and clearance...

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