The contribution of statistical physics to evolutionary biology

Abstract

Evolutionary biology shares many concepts with statistical physics: both deal with populations, whether of molecules or organisms, and both seek to simplify evolution in very many dimensions. Often, methodologies have undergone parallel and independent development, as with stochastic methods in population genetics. We discuss aspects of population genetics that have embraced methods from physics: amongst others, non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, travelling waves, and Monte-Carlo methods have been used to study polygenic evolution, rates of adaptation, and range expansions. These applications indicate that evolutionary biology can further benefit from interactions with other areas of statistical physics, for example, by following the distribution of paths taken by a population through time.

18 pages, 3 figures, glossary. Accepted in Trend in Ecology and Evolution (to appear in print in August 2011)

References in corpus (8)

• Gene surfing
• Genetic Demixing and Evolutionary Forces in the One-Dimensional Stepping Stone Model
• Parallel adaptation: One or many waves of advance of an advantageous allele?
• The traveling wave approach to asexual evolution: Muller's ratchet and speed of adaptation
• The noisy edge of traveling waves
• Stochastic Dynamical Structure (SDS) of Nonequilibrium Processes in the Absence of Detailed Balance. IV: Emerging of Stochastic Dynamical Equalities and Steady State Thermodynamics from Darwinian Dynamics
• Natural selection maximizes Fisher information
• The statistical mechanics of a polygenic characterunder stabilizing selection, mutation and drift

Cited by in corpus (25)

• Master equations and the theory of stochastic path integrals
• Evolution in a Changing Environment
• A model for the size distribution of marine microplastics: a statistical mechanics approach
• Fluctuation Relations of Fitness and Information in Population Dynamics
• Evolution of molecular phenotypes under stabilizing selection
• Fast-mode elimination in stochastic metapopulation models
• Towards physical principles of biological evolution
• Survival Probabilities at Spherical Frontiers
• Universal expressions of population change by the Price equation: natural selection, information, and maximum entropy production
• Natural selection. V. How to read the fundamental equations of evolutionary change in terms of information theory
• Stochastic and Information-thermodynamic Structures of Population Dynamics in Fluctuating Environment
• Hierarchy of Scales in Language Dynamics
• Thermodynamic selection: mechanisms and scenarios
• A stochastic field theory for the evolution of quantitative traits in finite populations
• Evolution of Genetic Redundancy : The Relevance of Complexity in Genotype-Phenotype Mapping
• Non-equilibrium time dynamics of genetic evolution
• Multiple-line inference of selection on quantitative traits
• Thermodynamics of switching in multistable non-equilibrium systems
• Sex as Gibbs Sampling: a probability model of evolution
• Effective potential reveals evolutionary trajectories in complex fitness landscapes
• Reduction of a metapopulation genetic model to an effective one island model
• Information propagation in time through allosteric signaling
• Dynamic maximum entropy provides accurate approximation of structured population dynamics
• Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics in Ecology: Vegetation Patterns, Animal Mobility and Temporal Fluctuations
• Kinetics of Muller's Ratchet from Adaptive Landscape Viewpoint