I have constructed a series of models that include both haploid and diploid individuals in a population. In these models, many parameters are varied, including reproductive system, population size, mutation rate, and recombination rate. I look across this entire range of parameters to find out when haploid individuals fare better and when diploids do. Then, with these patterns in hand, we can look at the distribution of traits in the world and see which variable, or combination of variables, has the most predictive power. A major task of theoretical evolutionary biology is to explain how the same mechanism, evolution, has led to such a vast array of extremely different organisms, why particular traits are favored in some organisms but are lost in others.
Models are a way to signpost the direction of evolution.
We can specify the conditions under which evolution can lead to haploidy, or parthenogenesis, or elaborate tail feathers, and we can determine when such evolution is impossible. By better specifying how populations can and cannot change, we will better understand how evolution has shaped the world around us and may better design experiments to test this understanding. Back to Sally Otto's Homepage.