Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communications Arising
  • Published:

Kin selection and eusociality

Nature volume 471, pages E5–E6 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Arising from M. A. Nowak, C. E. Tarnita & E. O. Wilson Nature 466, 1057–1062 (2010)10.1038/nature09205; Nowak et al. reply

Hamilton1 described a selective process in which individuals affect kin (kin selection), developed a novel modelling strategy for it (inclusive fitness), and derived a rule to describe it (Hamilton’s rule). Nowak et al.2 assert that inclusive fitness is not the best modelling strategy, and also that its production has been “meagre”. The former may be debated by theoreticians, but the latter is simply incorrect. There is abundant evidence to demonstrate that inclusive fitness, kin selection and Hamilton’s rule have been extraordinarily productive for understanding the evolution of sociality.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Hamilton, W. D. The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I–II. J. Theor. Biol. 7, 1–52 (1964)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Nowak, M. A., Tarnita, C. E. & Wilson, E. O. The evolution of eusociality. Nature 466, 1057–1062 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Griffin, A. S. & West, S. A. Kin discrimination and the benefit of helping in cooperatively breeding vertebrates. Science 302, 634–636 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Hughes, W., Oldroyd, B., Beekman, M. & Ratnieks, F. Ancestral monogamy shows kin selection is key to the evolution of eusociality. Science 320, 1213–1216 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Queller, D. C. & Strassmann, J. E. Kin selection and social insects. Bioscience 48, 165–175 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Strassmann, J. & Queller, D. Insect societies as divided organisms: the complexities of purpose and cross-purpose. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 8619–8626 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Crozier, R. H. & Pamilo, P. Evolution of Social Insect Colonies: Sex Allocation and Kin Selection (Oxford Univ. Press, 1996)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Field, J. & Cant, M. A. Social stability and helping in small animal societies. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 364, 3181–3189 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Sachs, J. L., Mueller, U. G., Wilcox, T. P. & Bull, J. J. The evolution of cooperation. Q. Rev. Biol. 79, 135–160 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Lehmann, L. & Keller, L. The evolution of cooperation and altruism. A general framework and a classification of models. J. Evol. Biol. 19, 1365–1376 (2006)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. West, S. A., Diggle, S. P., Buckling, A., Gardner, A. & Griffins, A. S. The social lives of microbes. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 38, 53–77 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Haig, D. Evolution of placental hormones. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 20, 222–223 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Wilson, E. O. in Kin Recognition in Animals (eds Fletcher, D. J. C. & Michener, C. D. ) 7–18 (Wiley, 1987)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA

    Joan E. Strassmann

  2. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA

    Robert E. Page Jr.

  3. Department of Entomology, and Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA

    Gene E. Robinson

  4. Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

    Thomas D. Seeley

Authors
  1. Joan E. Strassmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Robert E. Page Jr.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Gene E. Robinson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Thomas D. Seeley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

All authors conceived the project, analysed the material and wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joan E. Strassmann.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Competing financial interests: declared none.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Strassmann, J., Page, R., Robinson, G. et al. Kin selection and eusociality. Nature 471, E5–E6 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09833

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09833

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing