What is differential reproductive success

Those individuals lacking the favorable traits, or possessing unfavorable traits, are likely to die off before they can reproduce, removing their genetic material from the ongoing gene pool. The term differential reproductive success refers to a statistical analysis comparing successful reproduction rates between groups in a given generation of a species—in other words, how many offspring each group of individuals is able to leave behind.

The analysis is used to compare two groups holding different variations of the same trait, and it provides evidence of which group is "the fittest. If individuals exhibiting variation A of a trait are demonstrated to reach reproductive age more often and produce more offspring than individuals with variation B of the same trait, the differential reproductive success rate allows you to infer that natural selection is at work and that variation A is advantageous—at least for conditions at the time.

Those individuals with variation A will deliver more genetic material for that trait to the next generation, making it more likely to persist and carry on to future generations. Variation B, meanwhile, is likely to gradually vanish. Differential reproductive success can manifest in a number of ways. In some instances, a trait variation might cause individuals to live longer, thereby having more birth events that deliver more offspring to the next generation.

Or, it may cause more offspring to be produced with each birth, even though lifespan remains unchanged. Differential reproductive success can be used to study natural selection in any population of any living species, from the largest mammals to the smallest microorganisms.

The evolution of certain antibiotic-resistance bacteria is a classic example of natural selection, in which bacteria with a gene mutation making them resistant to drugs gradually replaced bacteria that had no such resistance.

For medical scientists, identifying these strains of drug-resistant bacteria the "fittest" involved documenting the differential reproductive success rates between different strains of the bacteria. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile.

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Materials and Methods. Rosenbaum , H.