51
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Good BH, Hallatschek O. Effective models and the search for quantitative principles in microbial evolution. Curr Opin Microbiol 2018; 45:203-212. [PMID: 30530175 PMCID: PMC6599682 DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2018.11.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2018] [Revised: 08/17/2018] [Accepted: 11/15/2018] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Microbes evolve rapidly. Yet they do so in idiosyncratic ways, which depend on the specific mutations that are beneficial or deleterious in a given situation. At the same time, some population-level patterns of adaptation are strikingly similar across different microbial systems, suggesting that there may also be simple, quantitative principles that unite these diverse scenarios. We review the search for simple principles in microbial evolution, ranging from the biophysical level to emergent evolutionary dynamics. A key theme has been the use of effective models, which coarse-grain over molecular and cellular details to obtain a simpler description in terms of a few effective parameters. Collectively, these theoretical approaches provide a set of quantitative principles that facilitate understanding, prediction, and potentially control of evolutionary phenomena, though formidable challenges remain due to the ecological complexity of natural populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin H Good
- Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, United States; Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, United States.
| | - Oskar Hallatschek
- Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, United States; Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, United States
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52
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Ruiz Daniels R, Taylor RS, Serra-Varela MJ, Vendramin GG, González-Martínez SC, Grivet D. Inferring selection in instances of long-range colonization: The Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) in the Mediterranean Basin. Mol Ecol 2018; 27:3331-3345. [PMID: 29972881 DOI: 10.1111/mec.14786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2017] [Revised: 05/31/2018] [Accepted: 06/14/2018] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Teasing apart the effects of natural selection and demography on current allele frequencies is challenging, due to both processes leaving a similar molecular footprint. In particular, when attempting to identify selection in species that have undergone a recent range expansion, the increase in genetic drift at the edges of range expansions ("allele surfing") can be a confounding factor. To address this potential issue, we first assess the long-range colonization history of the Aleppo pine across the Mediterranean Basin, using molecular markers. We then look for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) involved in local adaptation using: (a) environmental correlation methods (bayenv2), focusing on bioclimatic variables important for the species' adaptation (i.e., temperature, precipitation and water availability); and (b) FST -related methods (pcadapt). To assess the rate of false positives caused by the allele surfing effect, these results are compared with results from simulated SNP data that mimics the species' past range expansions and the effect of genetic drift, but with no selection. We find that the Aleppo pine shows a previously unsuspected complex genetic structure across its range, as well as evidence of selection acting on SNPs involved with the response to bioclimatic variables such as drought. This study uses an original approach to disentangle the confounding effects of drift and selection in range margin populations. It also contributes to the increased evidence that plant populations are able to adapt to new environments despite the expected accumulation of deleterious mutations that takes place during long-range colonizations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rose Ruiz Daniels
- Department of Forest Ecology and Genetics, Forest Research Centre, INIA, Madrid, Spain
| | | | - María Jesús Serra-Varela
- Department of Forest Ecology and Genetics, Forest Research Centre, INIA, Madrid, Spain
- Department of Plant Production and Forest Resources, University of Valladolid, Palencia, Spain
- Sustainable Forest Management Research Institute, INIA, University of Valladolid, Palencia, Spain
| | - Giovanni G Vendramin
- Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources, National Research Council, Sesto Fiorentino, FI, Italy
| | - Santiago C González-Martínez
- Sustainable Forest Management Research Institute, INIA, University of Valladolid, Palencia, Spain
- BIOGECO, INRA, University of Bordeaux, Cestas, France
| | - Delphine Grivet
- Department of Forest Ecology and Genetics, Forest Research Centre, INIA, Madrid, Spain
- Sustainable Forest Management Research Institute, INIA, University of Valladolid, Palencia, Spain
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53
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Dudaniec RY, Yong CJ, Lancaster LT, Svensson EI, Hansson B. Signatures of local adaptation along environmental gradients in a range-expanding damselfly (Ischnura elegans). Mol Ecol 2018; 27:2576-2593. [DOI: 10.1111/mec.14709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2018] [Revised: 03/23/2018] [Accepted: 04/03/2018] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Rachael Y. Dudaniec
- Department of Biological Sciences; Macquarie University; Sydney NSW Australia
| | - Chuan Ji Yong
- Department of Biological Sciences; Macquarie University; Sydney NSW Australia
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54
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Farrell FD, Gralka M, Hallatschek O, Waclaw B. Mechanical interactions in bacterial colonies and the surfing probability of beneficial mutations. J R Soc Interface 2018; 14:rsif.2017.0073. [PMID: 28592660 PMCID: PMC5493792 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2017.0073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2017] [Accepted: 05/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Bacterial conglomerates such as biofilms and microcolonies are ubiquitous in nature and play an important role in industry and medicine. In contrast to well-mixed cultures routinely used in microbial research, bacteria in a microcolony interact mechanically with one another and with the substrate to which they are attached. Here, we use a computer model of a microbial colony of rod-shaped cells to investigate how physical interactions between cells determine their motion in the colony and how this affects biological evolution. We show that the probability that a faster-growing mutant ‘surfs’ at the colony's frontier and creates a macroscopic sector depends on physical properties of cells (shape, elasticity and friction). Although all these factors contribute to the surfing probability in seemingly different ways, their effects can be summarized by two summary statistics that characterize the front roughness and cell alignment. Our predictions are confirmed by experiments in which we measure the surfing probability for colonies of different front roughness. Our results show that physical interactions between bacterial cells play an important role in biological evolution of new traits, and suggest that these interactions may be relevant to processes such as de novo evolution of antibiotic resistance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fred D Farrell
- Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
| | - Matti Gralka
- Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Oskar Hallatschek
- Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.,Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Bartlomiej Waclaw
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, JCMB, Peter Guthrie Tait Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, UK .,Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology, University of Edinburgh, CH Waddington Building, Max Born Crescent, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, UK
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55
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Heppenheimer E, Cosio DS, Brzeski KE, Caudill D, Van Why K, Chamberlain MJ, Hinton JW, vonHoldt B. Demographic history influences spatial patterns of genetic diversityin recently expanded coyote (Canis latrans) populations. Heredity (Edinb) 2018; 120:183-195. [PMID: 29269931 PMCID: PMC5836586 DOI: 10.1038/s41437-017-0014-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2017] [Revised: 09/06/2017] [Accepted: 10/03/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Human-mediated range expansions have increased in recent decades and represent unique opportunities to evaluate genetic outcomes of establishing peripheral populations across broad expansion fronts. Over the past century, coyotes (Canis latrans) have undergone a pervasive range expansion and now inhabit every state in the continental United States. Coyote expansion into eastern North America was facilitated by anthropogenic landscape changes and followed two broad expansion fronts. The northern expansion extended through the Great Lakes region and southern Canada, where hybridization with remnant wolf populations was common. The southern and more recent expansion front occurred approximately 40 years later and across territory where gray wolves have been historically absent and remnant red wolves were extirpated in the 1970s. We conducted a genetic survey at 10 microsatellite loci of 482 coyotes originating from 11 eastern U.S. states to address how divergent demographic histories influence geographic patterns of genetic diversity. We found that population structure corresponded to a north-south divide, which is consistent with the two known expansion routes. Additionally, we observed extremely high genetic diversity, which is atypical of recently expanded populations and is likely the result of multiple complex demographic processes, in addition to hybridization with other Canis species. Finally, we considered the transition of allele frequencies across geographic space and suggest the mid-Atlantic states of North Carolina and Virginia as an emerging contact zone between these two distinct coyote expansion fronts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth Heppenheimer
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, 106 A Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.
| | - Daniela S Cosio
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, 106 A Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Kristin E Brzeski
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, 106 A Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
| | - Danny Caudill
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, 1105 SW Williston Road, Gainesville, FL, 32601, USA
- Alaska Department of Fish Game, 1300 College Road, Fairbanks, AK, 99701, USA
| | - Kyle Van Why
- United States Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, PO Box 60827, Harrisburg, PA, 17106, USA
| | - Michael J Chamberlain
- Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, 180 E Green Street, Athens, GA, 30621, USA
| | - Joseph W Hinton
- Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, 180 E Green Street, Athens, GA, 30621, USA
| | - Bridgett vonHoldt
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, 106 A Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
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56
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The spatial and metabolic basis of colony size variation. ISME JOURNAL 2018; 12:669-680. [PMID: 29367665 PMCID: PMC5864198 DOI: 10.1038/s41396-017-0038-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2017] [Revised: 08/11/2017] [Accepted: 08/14/2017] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Spatial structure impacts microbial growth and interactions, with ecological and evolutionary consequences. It is therefore important to quantitatively understand how spatial proximity affects interactions in different environments. We tested how proximity influences colony size when either Escherichia coli or Salmonella enterica are grown on various carbon sources. The importance of colony location changed with species and carbon source. Spatially explicit, genome-scale metabolic modeling recapitulated observed colony size variation. Competitors that determine territory size, according to Voronoi diagrams, were the most important drivers of variation in colony size. However, the relative importance of different competitors changed through time. Further, the effect of location increased when colonies took up resources quickly relative to the diffusion of limiting resources. These analyses made it apparent that the importance of location was smaller than expected for experiments with S. enterica growing on glucose. The accumulation of toxic byproducts appeared to limit the growth of large colonies and reduced variation in colony size. Our work provides an experimentally and theoretically grounded understanding of how location interacts with metabolism and diffusion to influence microbial interactions.
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57
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58
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Weinstein BT, Lavrentovich MO, Möbius W, Murray AW, Nelson DR. Genetic drift and selection in many-allele range expansions. PLoS Comput Biol 2017; 13:e1005866. [PMID: 29194439 PMCID: PMC5728587 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005866] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2017] [Revised: 12/13/2017] [Accepted: 11/01/2017] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
We experimentally and numerically investigate the evolutionary dynamics of four competing strains of E. coli with differing expansion velocities in radially expanding colonies. We compare experimental measurements of the average fraction, correlation functions between strains, and the relative rates of genetic domain wall annihilations and coalescences to simulations modeling the population as a one-dimensional ring of annihilating and coalescing random walkers with deterministic biases due to selection. The simulations reveal that the evolutionary dynamics can be collapsed onto master curves governed by three essential parameters: (1) an expansion length beyond which selection dominates over genetic drift; (2) a characteristic angular correlation describing the size of genetic domains; and (3) a dimensionless constant quantifying the interplay between a colony’s curvature at the frontier and its selection length scale. We measure these parameters with a new technique that precisely measures small selective differences between spatially competing strains and show that our simulations accurately predict the dynamics without additional fitting. Our results suggest that the random walk model can act as a useful predictive tool for describing the evolutionary dynamics of range expansions composed of an arbitrary number of genotypes with different fitnesses. Population expansions occur naturally during the spread of invasive species and have played a role in our evolutionary history when humans migrated out of Africa. We use a colony of non-motile bacteria expanding into unoccupied, nutrient-rich territory on an agar plate as a model system to explore how an expanding population’s spatial structure impacts its evolutionary dynamics. Spatial structure is present in expanding microbial colonies because daughter cells migrate only a small distance away from their mothers each generation. Generally, the constituents of expansions occurring in nature and in the lab have different genetic compositions (genotypes, or alleles if a single gene differs), each instilling different fitnesses, which compete to proliferate at the frontier. Here, we show that a random-walk model can accurately predict the dynamics of four expanding strains of E. coli with different fitnesses; each strain represents a competing allele. Our results can be extended to describe any number of competing genotypes with different fitnesses in a naturally occurring expansion as long as the underlying motility of the organisms does not cause our model to break down. Our model can also be used to precisely measure small selective differences between spatially competing genotypes in controlled laboratory settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bryan T. Weinstein
- School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Maxim O. Lavrentovich
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Wolfram Möbius
- Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
- Physics and Astronomy, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
- Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Andrew W. Murray
- FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - David R. Nelson
- School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
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59
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Landscape Genomics: Understanding Relationships Between Environmental Heterogeneity and Genomic Characteristics of Populations. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/13836_2017_2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
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60
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Fronhofer EA, Gut S, Altermatt F. Evolution of density-dependent movement during experimental range expansions. J Evol Biol 2017; 30:2165-2176. [PMID: 28977712 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2017] [Revised: 09/19/2017] [Accepted: 09/22/2017] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Range expansions and biological invasions are prime examples of transient processes that are likely impacted by rapid evolutionary changes. As a spatial process, range expansions are driven by dispersal and movement behaviour. Although it is widely accepted that dispersal and movement may be context-dependent, for instance density-dependent, and best represented by reaction norms, the evolution of density-dependent movement during range expansions has received little experimental attention. We therefore tested current theory predicting the evolution of increased movement at low densities at range margins using highly replicated and controlled range expansion experiments across multiple genotypes of the protist model system Tetrahymena thermophila. Although rare, we found evolutionary changes during range expansions even in the absence of initial standing genetic variation. Range expansions led to the evolution of negatively density-dependent movement at range margins. In addition, we report the evolution of increased intrastrain competitive ability and concurrently decreased population growth rates in range cores. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding movement and dispersal as evolving reaction norms and plastic life-history traits of central relevance for range expansions, biological invasions and the dynamics of spatially structured systems in general.
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Affiliation(s)
- E A Fronhofer
- Department of Aquatic Ecology, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland.,Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - S Gut
- Department of Aquatic Ecology, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - F Altermatt
- Department of Aquatic Ecology, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland.,Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
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61
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Metabolite toxicity slows local diversity loss during expansion of a microbial cross-feeding community. ISME JOURNAL 2017; 12:136-144. [PMID: 28914879 DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2017.147] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2016] [Revised: 06/30/2017] [Accepted: 07/12/2017] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
Metabolic interactions between populations can influence patterns of spatial organization and diversity within microbial communities. Cross-feeding is one type of metabolic interaction that is pervasive within microbial communities, where one genotype consumes a resource into a metabolite while another genotype then consumes the metabolite. A typical feature of cross-feeding is that the metabolite may impose toxicity if it accumulates to sufficient concentrations. However, little is known about the effect of metabolite toxicity on spatial organization and local diversity within microbial communities. We addressed this knowledge gap by experimentally varying the toxicity of a single cross-fed metabolite and measuring the consequences on a synthetic microbial cross-feeding community. Our results demonstrate that metabolite toxicity slows demixing and thus slows local diversity loss of the metabolite-producing population. Using mathematical modeling, we show that this is because toxicity slows growth, which enables more cells to emigrate from the founding region and contribute towards population expansion. Our results show that metabolite toxicity is an important factor affecting local diversity within microbial communities and that spatial organization can be affected by non-intuitive mechanisms.
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62
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Accumulation of Deleterious Mutations During Bacterial Range Expansions. Genetics 2017; 207:669-684. [PMID: 28821588 PMCID: PMC5629331 DOI: 10.1534/genetics.117.300144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2017] [Accepted: 07/28/2017] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent theory predicts that the fitness of pioneer populations can decline when species expand their range, due to high rates of genetic drift on wave fronts making selection less efficient at purging deleterious variants. To test these predictions, we studied the fate of mutator bacteria expanding their range for 1650 generations on agar plates. In agreement with theory, we find that growth abilities of strains with a high mutation rate (HMR lines) decreased significantly over time, unlike strains with a lower mutation rate (LMR lines) that present three to four times fewer mutations. Estimation of the distribution of fitness effect under a spatially explicit model reveals a mean negative effect for new mutations (-0.38%), but it suggests that both advantageous and deleterious mutations have accumulated during the experiment. Furthermore, the fitness of HMR lines measured in different environments has decreased relative to the ancestor strain, whereas that of LMR lines remained unchanged. Contrastingly, strains with a HMR evolving in a well-mixed environment accumulated less mutations than agar-evolved strains and showed an increased fitness relative to the ancestor. Our results suggest that spatially expanding species are affected by deleterious mutations, leading to a drastic impairment of their evolutionary potential.
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63
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Gralka M, Fusco D, Martis S, Hallatschek O. Convection shapes the trade-off between antibiotic efficacy and the selection for resistance in spatial gradients. Phys Biol 2017; 14:045011. [PMID: 28649977 PMCID: PMC5728155 DOI: 10.1088/1478-3975/aa7bb3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Since penicillin was discovered about 90 years ago, we have become used to using drugs to eradicate unwanted pathogenic cells. However, using drugs to kill bacteria, viruses or cancer cells has the serious side effect of selecting for mutant types that survive the drug attack. A crucial question therefore is how one could eradicate as many cells as possible for a given acceptable risk of drug resistance evolution. We address this general question in a model of drug resistance evolution in spatial drug gradients, which recent experiments and theories have suggested as key drivers of drug resistance. Importantly, our model takes into account the influence of convection, resulting for instance from blood flow. Using stochastic simulations, we study the fates of individual resistance mutations and quantify the trade-off between the killing of wild-type cells and the rise of resistance mutations: shallow gradients and convection into the antibiotic region promote wild-type death, at the cost of increasing the establishment probability of resistance mutations. We can explain these observed trends by modeling the adaptation process as a branching random walk. Our analysis reveals that the trade-off between death and adaptation depends on the relative length scales of the spatial drug gradient and random dispersal, and the strength of convection. Our results show that convection can have a momentous effect on the rate of establishment of new mutations, and may heavily impact the efficiency of antibiotic treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matti Gralka
- Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States of America
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64
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Hermisson J, Pennings PS. Soft sweeps and beyond: understanding the patterns and probabilities of selection footprints under rapid adaptation. Methods Ecol Evol 2017. [DOI: 10.1111/2041-210x.12808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 186] [Impact Index Per Article: 26.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Joachim Hermisson
- Department of Mathematics and Max F. Perutz Laboratories University of Vienna Vienna Austria
| | - Pleuni S. Pennings
- Department of Biology San Francisco State University San Francisco CA USA
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65
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Inglis RF, Ryu E, Asikhia O, Strassmann JE, Queller DC. Does high relatedness promote cheater-free multicellularity in synthetic lifecycles? J Evol Biol 2017; 30:985-993. [PMID: 28294448 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2016] [Accepted: 03/10/2017] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
The evolution of multicellularity is one of the key transitions in evolution and requires extreme levels of cooperation between cells. However, even when cells are genetically identical, noncooperative cheating mutants can arise that cause a breakdown in cooperation. How then, do multicellular organisms maintain cooperation between cells? A number of mechanisms that increase relatedness amongst cooperative cells have been implicated in the maintenance of cooperative multicellularity including single-cell bottlenecks and kin recognition. In this study, we explore how relatively simple biological processes such as growth and dispersal can act to increase relatedness and promote multicellular cooperation. Using experimental populations of pseudo-organisms, we found that manipulating growth and dispersal of clones of a social amoeba to create high levels of relatedness was sufficient to prevent the spread of cheating mutants. By contrast, cheaters were able to spread under low-relatedness conditions. Most surprisingly, we saw the largest increase in cheating mutants under an experimental treatment that should create intermediate levels of relatedness. This is because one of the factors raising relatedness, structured growth, also causes high vulnerability to growth rate cheaters.
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Affiliation(s)
- R F Inglis
- Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - E Ryu
- Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - O Asikhia
- Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - J E Strassmann
- Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - D C Queller
- Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
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66
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An exactly solvable, spatial model of mutation accumulation in cancer. Sci Rep 2016; 6:39511. [PMID: 28004754 PMCID: PMC5177951 DOI: 10.1038/srep39511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2016] [Accepted: 11/24/2016] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
One of the hallmarks of cancer is the accumulation of driver mutations which increase the net reproductive rate of cancer cells and allow them to spread. This process has been studied in mathematical models of well mixed populations, and in computer simulations of three-dimensional spatial models. But the computational complexity of these more realistic, spatial models makes it difficult to simulate realistically large and clinically detectable solid tumours. Here we describe an exactly solvable mathematical model of a tumour featuring replication, mutation and local migration of cancer cells. The model predicts a quasi-exponential growth of large tumours, even if different fragments of the tumour grow sub-exponentially due to nutrient and space limitations. The model reproduces clinically observed tumour growth times using biologically plausible rates for cell birth, death, and migration rates. We also show that the expected number of accumulated driver mutations increases exponentially in time if the average fitness gain per driver is constant, and that it reaches a plateau if the gains decrease over time. We discuss the realism of the underlying assumptions and possible extensions of the model.
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67
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Genetic surfing in human populations: from genes to genomes. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2016; 41:53-61. [DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2016.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2016] [Revised: 07/06/2016] [Accepted: 08/02/2016] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
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68
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Abstract
The problem of antibiotic resistance poses challenges across many disciplines. One such challenge is to understand the fundamental science of how antibiotics work, and how resistance to them can emerge. This is an area where physicists can make important contributions. Here, we highlight cases where this is already happening, and suggest directions for further physics involvement in antimicrobial research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rosalind Allen
- SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Edinburgh, Peter Guthrie Tait Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, UK. Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology, The University of Edinburgh, UK
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