Coevolutionary interactions between a haploid species and a diploid species
Abstract. We investigate a general model describing coevolutionary interaction between a haploid population and a diploid population, each with two alleles at a single locus. Both species are allowed to evolve, with the fitnesses of the genotypes of each species assumed to depend linearly on the frequencies of the genotypes of the other species. We explore the resulting outcomes of these interactions, in particular determining the location of equilibria under various conditions. The coevolution here is much more complex than that between two haploid populations and allows for the possibility of two polymorphic equilibria. To allow for further analysis, we construct a semi-symmetric model. The variety of outcomes possible even in this second model provides support for the geographic mosaic theory of coevolution by suggesting the possibility of small local populations coevolving to very different outcomes, leading to a shifting geographic mosaic as neighboring populations interact with each other through migration.