weak selection

Rousset F & Lion S 2011 Much ado about nothing: Nowak et al.'s charge against inclusive fitness theory. J Evol Biol, in press.
doi:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02251.x

• some limitations ascribed to inclusive fitness are actually limitations of current evolutionary theory, for which Nowak et al. propose no new solution

• the weak selection version of inclusive fitness has the same limitations as the notion of the selection gradient itself
• another old debate revisited by NTW is whether the r, b and c in Hamilton's rule must be measured exactly under arbitrarily strong selection or only taken as approximations under weak selection
• the aim of a theoretical analysis is then to provide general approximations rather than exact results
• such approximations have been derived from the weak selection version of inclusive fitness
• inclusive fitness is not different from selection gradient approximations classically used in quantitative genetics and artificial breeding
• we do not claim that these are the only possible nor the best approaches, but NTW do not propose anything new to solve this issue

• turning to Theorem 1 in their Appendix A, which NTW claim is their main result, it is striking that NTW have nothing new to propose

• we think the publication of this article in a high-profile journal, along with the large media coverage it received, is an illustration of some serious shortcomings in current scientific practice