Evolutionary games and quasispecies

Abstract

We discuss a population of sequences subject to mutations and frequency-dependent selection, where the fitness of a sequence depends on the composition of the entire population. This type of dynamics is crucial to understand, for example, the coupled evolution of different strands in a viral population. Mathematically, it takes the form of a reaction-diffusion problem that is nonlinear in the population state. In our model system, the fitness is determined by a simple mathematical game, the hawk-dove game. The stationary population distribution is found to be a quasispecies with properties different from those which hold in fixed fitness landscapes