Biology – Quantitative Biology – Populations and Evolution
Scientific paper
2009-01-23
Frank, S. A. 2009. Natural selection maximizes Fisher information. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22:231-244
Biology
Quantitative Biology
Populations and Evolution
Published version freely available at DOI listed here
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1420-9101.2008.01647.x
In biology, information flows from the environment to the genome by the process of natural selection. But it has not been clear precisely what sort of information metric properly describes natural selection. Here, I show that Fisher information arises as the intrinsic metric of natural selection and evolutionary dynamics. Maximizing the amount of Fisher information about the environment captured by the population leads to Fisher's fundamental theorem of natural selection, the most profound statement about how natural selection influences evolutionary dynamics. I also show a relation between Fisher information and Shannon information (entropy) that may help to unify the correspondence between information and dynamics. Finally, I discuss possible connections between the fundamental role of Fisher information in statistics, biology, and other fields of science.
No associations
LandOfFree
Natural selection maximizes Fisher information does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Natural selection maximizes Fisher information, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Natural selection maximizes Fisher information will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-66378