Birth–death fixation probabilities for structured populations

Abstract

This paper presents an adaptation of the Moran birth–death model of evolutionary processes on graphs. The present model makes use of the full population state space consisting of 2 N binary-valued vectors, and a Markov process on this space with a transition matrix defined by the edge weight matrix for any given graph. While the general case involves solution of 2 N – 2 linear equations, symmetry considerations substantially reduce this for graphs with large automorphism groups, and a number of simple examples are considered. A parameter called graph determinacy is introduced, measuring the extent to which the fate of any randomly chosen population state is determined. Some simple graphs that suppress or enhance selection are analysed, and comparison of several examples to the Moran process on a complete graph indicates that in some cases a graph may enhance selection relative to a complete graph for only limited values of the fitness parameter.