Hi Gang, Kin Selection and Inclusive Fitness are important and not completely understood aspects of evolution. The general idea is that natural selection may favor traits that help relatives of an individual to survive. The reasoning is that relatives (kin) share some of the genes that an individual has, and that helping kin can help perpetuate shared genes. Inclusive Fitness is apparently not the same as Altruism, but the concepts are similar and overlapping. Helping kin has costs, and Altruism has costs. If an organism shares resources (nutrients, water, sunlight) there is typically a cost. Sharing sunlight or soil nutrients can result in production of fewer flowers and seeds, and therefore fewer offspring. Loss of offspring is the ultimate cost. Therefore, whenever Inclusive Fitness is observed, it is proposed that there is some sort of evolutionary tradeoff, a mitigation of cost. An individual might produce fewer direct offspring, but kin have nearly identical gene sets and a benefit can be realized (in evolutionary terms) if kin are able to propagate and so perpetuate identical (or similar) genes. The interesting bit of news this week is that Dr. Susan Dudley and her colleagues at McMaster University have documented that plants seem to give a break to members of their own species in the never ending competition for resources. The effect was observed in root growth. Typically, plants will make extra roots if they are in proximity to other plants. The extra roots help a plant acquire water and nutrients that might otherwise be usurped by neighbors. Dr. Dudley has shown that plants produce more roots (and do so more quickly) when in proximity to unrelated plants. When grown alongside siblings (same maternal line) the study plants produced fewer roots--the plants shared. This is all interpreted is Kin Selection, i.e., the plants are not as competitive with relatives as they are with strangers. The experiments were conducted in the laboratory where plants (Cakile edentula) were grown in groups of four. The Cakile were grown with same species (derived from the same maternal line) or with more distantly related plants. The result is more than a bit of data showing the kin selection is a broad phenomenon in Nature. The result raises really interesting questions. How do plants recognize close relatives vs. not close relatives and how do the modulate their root growth accordingly. The answer will be interesting to unravel; perhaps the mechanism is related to pollen acceptance or rejection wherein plants can recognize their own pollen and prevent self-fertilization. Perhaps an unknown mechanism is involved such as related plants being able to share mycorrhizal fungi and perhaps gain by sharing. If one plant species has Kin Selection it seems most probable that other species will have the feature. I'm confident that some bulbs will be shown to exhibit Kin Selection. LINK: Dr. Dudley, Home Page, McMaster Univ. http://science.mcmaster.ca/biology/faculty/… LINK: Page 1, The Ecology of Kin Recognition (JSTOR) http://www.tiny.cc/RkTDP/ Cordially, Joe Conroe, TX