Intra-cellular fluctuations, mainly triggered by gene expression, are an inevitable phenomenon observed in living cells. It influences generation of phenotypic diversity in genetically identical cells. Such variation of cellular components is beneficial in some contexts but detrimental in others. To quantify the fluctuations in a gene product, we undertake an analytical scheme for studying few ...

Natural environments are characterized by daily and seasonal fluctuations in temperature, and ectotherms are expected to adapt to these fluctuations. Moderate temperature fluctuations often accelerate development rate as a result of the Kaufmann effect and possibly additional physiological adaptations. We examined the adaptive potential of ecotype-specific reaction norms by measuring the effect...

The properties of the synchronously activated radiatum fiber-CA1 synaptic population were examined with the in vitro hippocampal slice preparation. Periodic fluctuations in synaptic transmission and in the enhancement of synaptic transmission were observed with periods ranging from 8 to 20 s. Such periodic fluctuations did not arise from fluctuations in afferent radiatum fiber activity. The per...

A new concept for estimating the bacterial growth under temperature fluctuations was hypothesized and validated using Clostridium perfringens as a test organism. This new methodology was based on the Gompertz models to calculate the equivalent growth times under different temperatures, and estimated the bacterial population under temperature fluctuations. The new concept was tested in ground be...

One of the most striking effect of fluctuations in evolutionary game theory is the possibility for mutants to fixate (take over) an entire population. Here, we generalize a recent WKB-based theory to study fixation in evolutionary games under non-vanishing selection, and investigate the relation between selection intensity w and demographic (random) fluctuations. This allows the accurate treatm...

Taylor's law, one of the most widely accepted generalizations in ecology, states that the variance of a population abundance time series scales as a power law of its mean. Here we reexamine this law and the empirical evidence presented in support of it. Specifically, we show that the exponent generally depends on the length of the time series, and its value reflects the combined effect of many ...

Contrary to classical population genetics theory, experiments demonstrate that fluctuating selection can protect a haploid polymorphism in the absence of frequency dependent effects on fitness. Using forward simulations with the Moran model, we confirm our analytical results showing that a fluctuating selection regime, with a mean selection coefficient of zero, promotes polymorphism. We find th...

The adaptive process can be considered as being driven by two fundamental forces: exploitation and exploration. While the explorative process may be deterministic, the resultant effect may be stochastic. Stochastic effects may also exist in the expoitative process. This thesis considers the effects of stochastic fluctuations inherent in the adaptive process on the behavioural dynamics of a popu...

Variability is a key feature of the pelagic ecosystems of the Southern Ocean and an important aspect of the variation is fluctuation in the abundance of krill Euphausia superba Dana, the major prey item of many of the higher predators. Direct impacts of variability in the large-scale physical environment, such as changes in ocean circulation, have been suggested as the main factor generating th...