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Evolving generalists in switching rugged landscapes

Fig 2

The onset, abundance and fitness of generalists.

Expected number (A) and average fitness (C) of shared peaks are shown as a function of the number n_p of conserved fitness contributions at color-coded values of K. In (C), dashed lines indicate average fitness of all local optima at K = 3 (grey) and K = 11 (blue), respectively, which correspond to values at n_p = N = 12, whereby all peaks are shared. Above (marked by arrows) generalists are on average fitter than specialists; this requires a higher level of fitness conservation as ruggedness decreases (e.g. for K = 11 whereas for K = 3). (B) The fraction of generalists among all fitness peaks increases with n_p; indicates the minimum conservation level for generalists to exist. Curves correspond to K = 3, 7, 11, increasing in the direction of the arrow. Inset: deceases with increasing K. Each data point is an average over 1000 landscape pairs.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007320.g002