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On the Adaptive Value of Some Mate Selection Strategies

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Abstract

Results of an agent-based computer simulation of the evolution of diploid sexual organisms showed that several mate selection strategies confer much higher average fitness to the simulated populations, and higher evolutionary stability to the alleles coding for these strategies, than random mating. Strategies which select for 'good genes' were very successful, and so were strategies based on assortative mating. The results support the hypothesis that mating is not likely to be random in nature and that the most successful mate selection strategies are those based on assortative mating or on advantageous genes.

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Jaffe, K. On the Adaptive Value of Some Mate Selection Strategies. Acta Biotheor 47, 29–40 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1002022126388

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