H. Kokko

Positive fitness effects help explain the broad range of Wolbachia prevalences in natural populations

This study shows that direct fitness benefits from Wolbachia can explain stable low-frequency infections in natural populations, challenging classical models that predict near-fixation or extinction.

Extrinsic mortality and senescence: a guide for the perplexed

The paper provides heuristics and models to clarify when George Williams' prediction about extrinsic mortality and senescence holds, and why conflicting results may arise.

Sex differences in the strength of selection under facultative sex

The paper shows that sex differences affect selection strength in facultative sexual species, challenging current assumptions about conditional gene expression.

Volatile social environments can favour investments in quality over quantity of social relationships

The paper models how volatile social environments can favor a focused strategy of forming few strong social bonds over a diversifying strategy, using antagonistic pleiotropy theory.

Parthenogenesis and the Evolution of Anisogamy

This paper extends previous models of anisogamy evolution by incorporating parthenogenesis, showing it can stabilize isogamy and lead to asexual dominance through biased sex ratios or mutations.

Selfish migrants: How a meiotic driver is selected to increase dispersal

The paper models how the t haplotype in mice increases dispersal through its deleterious traits, showing that dispersal propensity evolves with density and cost parameters.

Cancer risk and sexual conflict as constraints to body size evolution

The paper analyzes how cancer risk and sexual conflict constrain body size evolution by showing cancer can halt size increases and sexual dimorphism in life history traits can evolve independently of ecological factors.

Bird size with dinosaur-level cancer defences: can evolutionary lags during miniaturisation explain cancer robustness in birds?

The paper models evolutionary lags in cancer defence retention during body size reduction in birds, showing how ancestral traits may explain cancer robustness and lifespan benefits.

Transmissible cancers and the evolution of sex under the Red Queen hypothesis

This study evaluates whether transmissible cancers could drive the evolution of sex under the Red Queen hypothesis, finding that horizontal transmission reduces fluctuating selection, while vertical transmission promotes sex through similarity selection.

Sex ratio and sexual conflict in a collective action problem

The paper shows that biased sex ratios can prevent freeriding in collective action problems by maintaining minority roles that sustain cooperation.

From zygote to a multicellular soma: body size affects optimal growth strategies under cancer risk

The paper models how body size influences optimal cellular strategies for growth and cancer risk, finding that large-bodied organisms have more robust strategies across size variations.

Coevolution of male and female mate choice can destabilize reproductive isolation

This study shows that coevolving male and female mate choice can lead to periodic hybridization and destabilize reproductive isolation through deterministic preference cycling driven by stochasticity.

An inordinate fondness for species with intermediate dispersal abilities

The paper shows that species with intermediate dispersal abilities are more likely to achieve high species richness due to eco-evolutionary effects of dispersal on speciation.

Sexual reproduction as bet-hedging

The paper examines whether sexual reproduction can be considered a form of bet-hedging by comparing geometric and arithmetic mean fitness of sexual and asexual reproduction.