Zusammenfassung für den Vortrag am 10.06.2002 (14:15 Uhr)

Michael Lachmann (MPI MIS, Leipzig)

Outcrossing overcomes the Error Catastrophe

The error catastrophe states that when selection is weaker than mutation, the population will do a random walk in genotype space. A similar version can be formulated for environmental changes: when selection is weaker than the rate at which the environment changes, the population will again do a random walk in genotype space. I will show that an outcrossing population can overcome this version of the error catastrophe - no matter how weak the selection pressure, an outcrossing population can track the environment, if the population size is sufficient.