Table 1. Overview of the scenarios explored.

Scenarios	$w_{min}$	$w_{max}$	nini	f
1–5	0	0.1	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	2
6–10	0	0.1	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	10
11–15	0.45	0.55	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	2
16–20	0.45	0.55	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	10
21–25	0.2	0.6	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	2
26–30	0.2	0.6	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	10
31–35	0.3	0.7	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	2
36–40	0.3	0.7	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	10
41–45	0.4	0.8	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	2
46–50	0.4	0.8	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	10
51–55	0.1	0.9	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	2
56–60	0.1	0.9	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	10
61–65	0.0	1.0	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	2
66–70	0.0	1.0	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	10
71–75	0.9	1.0	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	2
76–80	0.9	1.0	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000	10

We chose the scenarios to reflect a wide range of possible biological systems and provide results of general applicability. The minimum and maximum intrinsic merits $w_{min}$ and $w_{max}$ were chosen to capture situations where both are low (scenarios 1–10), high (scenarios 71–80), where $w_{min}$ is low and $w_{max}$ high (scenarios 51–70), or both are intermediate. The initial number of alleles is generally not known, but as > 100 alleles have been found for a number of mammalian species (see above), we also explored larger values for $n_{ini}$, as well as different epitope-recognition site sequence lengths, varying $f$ to cover situations where the individuals are exposed to fewer or more pathogens.