Abstract
This paper shows that differentiating the lifetimes of two phenotypes independently from their fertility can lead to a qualitative change in the equilibrium of a population: since survival and reproduction are distinct functional aspects of an organism, this observation contributes to extend the population-genetical characterisation of biological function. To support this statement a mathematical relation is derived to link the lifetime ratio T 1/T 2, which parameterizes the different survival ability of two phenotypes, with population variables that quantify the amount of neutral variation underlying a population’s phenotypic distribution.
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Acknowledgements
An acknowledgment is due to Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen for drafting an ecological model which partially inspired the one presented here. The research was supported by a Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme.
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Gallo, I. Population Genetics of Gene Function. Bull Math Biol 75, 1082–1103 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-013-9841-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-013-9841-6