Fitness in biology is the relative ability of an organism to survive and pass on its genes to the next generation.[1]p160 It is a central idea in evolutionary theory. Fitness is usually equal to the proportion of the individual's genes in all the genes of the next generation.
Like all terms in evolutionary biology, fitness is defined in terms of an interbreeding population, which might or might not be a whole species. If differences in individual genotypes affect fitness, then the frequencies of the genotypes will change over generations; the genotypes with higher fitness become more common. This is the process called natural selection.
An individual's fitness is caused by its phenotype, and passed on by its genotype. The fitnesses of different individuals with the same genotype are not necessarily equal. It depends on the environment in which the individuals live, and on accidental events. However, since the fitness of the genotype is an averaged quantity, it reflects the reproductive outcomes of all individuals with that genotype.
