TY - JOUR T1 - Frequency-Dependent Selection Predicts Patterns of Radiations and Biodiversity A1 - Melián, Carlos J. A1 - Alonso, David A1 - Vázquez, Diego P. A1 - Regetz, James A1 - Allesina, Stefano Y1 - 2010/08/26 N2 - Author Summary Ecological opportunity, or filling a pre-existing unoccupied adaptive zone, is considered the dominant mechanism explaining the initial explosion of diversity. Although this type of niche filling can explain rates of diversification in some lineages, it is not sufficient for a radiation to occur. Instead of attributing the propensity to have an explosion of new species to external influences like niche availability, an alternative hypothesis can be based in frequency-dependent selection driven by the ecology in which organisms are embedded or endogenous sources mediated by gametes during fertilization. We show that genome diversification driven by higher reproductive probability of rare genotypes generates rapid initial speciation followed by a plateau with very low speciation rates, as shown by most empirical data. The absence of advantage of rare genotypes generates speciation events at constant rates. We predict decline over time and constant speciation rate in the cichlids and Darwin's finches, respectively, thus providing an alternative hypothesis for the origin of radiations and biodiversity in the absence of pre-existing niche filling. In addition to predicting observed temporal trends in diversification, our analysis also highlights new mechanistic models of evolutionary biodiversity dynamics that may become suitable to generate neutral models for testing observed patterns in speciation rates and species diversity. JF - PLOS Computational Biology JA - PLOS Computational Biology VL - 6 IS - 8 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000892 SP - e1000892 EP - PB - Public Library of Science M3 - doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000892 ER -