1
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Turner CB, Blount ZD, Mitchell DH, Lenski RE. Evolution of a cross-feeding interaction following a key innovation in a long-term evolution experiment with Escherichia coli. MICROBIOLOGY (READING, ENGLAND) 2023; 169:001390. [PMID: 37650867 PMCID: PMC10482366 DOI: 10.1099/mic.0.001390] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Accepted: 08/15/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023]
Abstract
The evolution of a novel trait can profoundly change an organism's effects on its environment, which can in turn affect the further evolution of that organism and any coexisting organisms. We examine these effects and feedbacks following the evolution of a novel function in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment (LTEE) with Escherichia coli. A characteristic feature of E. coli is its inability to grow aerobically on citrate (Cit-). Nonetheless, a Cit+ variant with this capacity evolved in one LTEE population after 31 000 generations. The Cit+ clade then coexisted stably with another clade that retained the ancestral Cit- phenotype. This coexistence was shaped by the evolution of a cross-feeding relationship based on C4-dicarboxylic acids, particularly succinate, fumarate, and malate, that the Cit+ variants release into the medium. Both the Cit- and Cit+ cells evolved to grow on these excreted resources. The evolution of aerobic growth on citrate thus led to a transition from an ecosystem based on a single limiting resource, glucose, to one with at least five resources that were either shared or partitioned between the two coexisting clades. Our findings show that evolutionary novelties can change environmental conditions in ways that facilitate diversity by altering ecosystem structure and the evolutionary trajectories of coexisting lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline B. Turner
- Ecology, Evolution and Behavior Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
- Present address: Department of Biology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Zachary D. Blount
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
| | - Daniel H. Mitchell
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
- Present address: Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
| | - Richard E. Lenski
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics; and Ecology, Evolution and Behavior Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
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2
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Environmental complexity is more important than mutation in driving the evolution of latent novel traits in E. coli. Nat Commun 2022; 13:5904. [PMID: 36202805 PMCID: PMC9537139 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33634-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent experiments show that adaptive Darwinian evolution in one environment can lead to the emergence of multiple new traits that provide no immediate benefit in this environment. Such latent non-adaptive traits, however, can become adaptive in future environments. We do not know whether mutation or environment-driven selection is more important for the emergence of such traits. To find out, we evolve multiple wild-type and mutator E. coli populations under two mutation rates in simple (single antibiotic) environments and in complex (multi-antibiotic) environments. We then assay the viability of evolved populations in dozens of new environments and show that all populations become viable in multiple new environments different from those they had evolved in. The number of these new environments increases with environmental complexity but not with the mutation rate. Genome sequencing demonstrates the reason: Different environments affect pleiotropic mutations differently. Our experiments show that the selection pressure provided by an environment can be more important for the evolution of novel traits than the mutational supply experienced by a wild-type and a mutator strain of E. coli. Novel traits without immediate fitness benefit evolve frequently but we don’t know whether mutation or environment-driven selection drives this evolution. Here, using experimental evolution of E. coli populations, the authors demonstrate the importance of selection in the evolution of latent novel traits.
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3
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Derex M. Human cumulative culture and the exploitation of natural phenomena. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20200311. [PMID: 34894732 PMCID: PMC8666902 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 09/09/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Cumulative cultural evolution (CCE)-defined as the process by which beneficial modifications are culturally transmitted and progressively accumulated over time-has long been argued to underlie the unparalleled diversity and complexity of human culture. In this paper, I argue that not just any kind of cultural accumulation will give rise to human-like culture. Rather, I suggest that human CCE depends on the gradual exploitation of natural phenomena, which are features of our environment that, through the laws of physics, chemistry or biology, generate reliable effects which can be exploited for a purpose. I argue that CCE comprises two distinct processes: optimizing cultural traits that exploit a given set of natural phenomena (Type I CCE) and expanding the set of natural phenomena we exploit (Type II CCE). I argue that the most critical features of human CCE, including its open-ended dynamic, stems from Type II CCE. Throughout the paper, I contrast the two processes and discuss their respective socio-cognitive requirements. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxime Derex
- CNRS, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, University of Toulouse 1 Capitole, France
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4
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Karve S, Wagner A. Multiple novel traits without immediate benefits originate in bacteria evolving on single antibiotics. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 39:6448767. [PMID: 34865131 PMCID: PMC8789282 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
How new traits originate in evolution is a fundamental question of evolutionary biology. When such traits arise, they can either be immediately beneficial in their environment of origin, or they may become beneficial only in a future environment. Compared to immediately beneficial novel traits, novel traits without immediate benefits remain poorly studied. Here we use experimental evolution to study novel traits that are not immediately beneficial but that allow bacteria to survive in new environments. Specifically, we evolved multiple E. coli populations in five antibiotics with different mechanisms of action, and then determined their ability to grow in more than 200 environments that are different from the environment in which they evolved. Our populations evolved viability in multiple environments that contain not just clinically relevant antibiotics, but a broad range of antimicrobial molecules, such as surfactants, organic and inorganic salts, nucleotide analogues and pyridine derivatives. Genome sequencing of multiple evolved clones shows that pleiotropic mutations are important for the origin of these novel traits. Our experiments, which lasted fewer than 250 generations, demonstrate that evolution can readily create an enormous reservoir of latent traits in microbial populations. These traits can facilitate adaptive evolution in a changing world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shraddha Karve
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich Switzerland
| | - Andreas Wagner
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich Switzerland.,Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Quartier Sorge-Batiment Genopode, Lausanne, Switzerland.,The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.,Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), Wallenberg Research Centre at Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa
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5
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Vale GL, McGuigan N, Burdett E, Lambeth SP, Lucas A, Rawlings B, Schapiro SJ, Watson SK, Whiten A. Why do chimpanzees have diverse behavioral repertoires yet lack more complex cultures? Invention and social information use in a cumulative task. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
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6
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Erwin DH. A conceptual framework of evolutionary novelty and innovation. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2020; 96:1-15. [PMID: 32869437 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12643] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2020] [Revised: 07/31/2020] [Accepted: 08/12/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Since 1990 the recognition of deep homologies among metazoan developmental processes and the spread of more mechanistic approaches to developmental biology have led to a resurgence of interest in evolutionary novelty and innovation. Other evolutionary biologists have proposed central roles for behaviour and phenotypic plasticity in generating the conditions for the construction of novel morphologies, or invoked the accessibility of new regions of vast sequence spaces. These approaches contrast with more traditional emphasis on the exploitation of ecological opportunities as the primary source of novelty. This definitional cornucopia reflects differing stress placed on three attributes of novelties: their radical nature, the generation of new taxa, and ecological and evolutionary impact. Such different emphasis has led to conflating four distinct issues: the origin of novel attributes (genes, developmental processes, phenotypic characters), new functions, higher clades and the ecological impact of new structures and functions. Here I distinguish novelty (the origin of new characters, deep character transformations, or new combinations) from innovation, the ecological and evolutionary success of clades. Evidence from the fossil record of macroevolutionary lags between the origin of a novelty and its ecological success demonstrates that novelty may be decoupled from innovation, and only definitions of novelty based on radicality (rather than generativity or consequentiality) can be assessed without reference to the subsequent history of the clade to which a novelty belongs. These considerations suggest a conceptual framework for novelty and innovation, involving: (i) generation of the potential for novelty; (ii) the formation of novel attributes; (iii) refinement of novelties through adaptation; (iv) exploitation of novelties by a clade, which may coincide with a new round of ecological or environmental potentiation; followed by (v) the establishment of innovations through ecological processes. This framework recognizes that there is little empirical support for either the dominance of ecological opportunity, nor abrupt discontinuities (often caricatured as 'hopeful monsters'). This general framework may be extended to aspects of cultural and social innovation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Douglas H Erwin
- Department of Paleobiology, MRC-121 National Museum of Natural History, PO Box 37012, Washington, DC, 20013-7012, U.S.A.,Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM, 87501, U.S.A
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7
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Bietti LM, Bangerter A, Knutsen D, Mayor E. Cultural transmission in a food preparation task: The role of interactivity, innovation and storytelling. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0221278. [PMID: 31532770 PMCID: PMC6750589 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2019] [Accepted: 08/02/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Interactive conversation drives the transmission of cultural information in small groups and large networks. In formal (e.g. schools) and informal (e.g. home) learning settings, interactivity does not only allow individuals and groups to faithfully transmit and learn new knowledge and skills, but also to boost cumulative cultural evolution. Here we investigate how interactivity affects performance, teaching, learning, innovation and chosen diffusion mode (e.g. instructional discourse vs. storytelling) of previously acquired information in a transmission chain experiment. In our experiment, participants (n = 288) working in 48 chains with three generations of pairs had to learn and complete a collaborative food preparation task (ravioli-making), and then transmit their experience to a new generation of participants in an interactive and non-interactive condition. Food preparation is a real-world task that it is taught and learned across cultures and transmitted over generations in families and groups. Pairs were defined as teachers or learners depending on their role in the transmission chain. The number of good exemplars of ravioli each pair produced was taken as measurement of performance. Contrary to our expectations, the results did not reveal that (1) performance increased over generations or that (2) interactivity in transmission sessions promoted increased performance. However, the results showed that (3) interactivity promoted the transmission of more information from teachers to learners; (4) increased quantity of information transmission from teachers led to higher performance in learners; (5) higher performance generations introduced more innovations in transmission sessions; (6) learners applied those transmitted innovations to their performance which made them persist over generations; (7) storytelling was specialized for the transmission of non-routine, unexpected information. Our findings offer new insights on how interactivity, innovation and storytelling affect the cultural transmission of complex collaborative tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas M. Bietti
- Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Télécom Paris, Institut Interdisciplinaire de l’innovation, UMR 9217, Paris, France
- * E-mail:
| | - Adrian Bangerter
- Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Dominique Knutsen
- Univ. Lille, CNRS, CHU Lille, UMR 9193—SCALab—Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, Lille, France
| | - Eric Mayor
- Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
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8
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Ebel SJ, Schmelz M, Herrmann E, Call J. Innovative problem solving in great apes: the role of visual feedback in the floating peanut task. Anim Cogn 2019; 22:791-805. [PMID: 31278621 PMCID: PMC6687703 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01275-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2018] [Revised: 05/31/2019] [Accepted: 06/05/2019] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Nonhuman great apes show remarkable behavioural flexibility. Some individuals are even able to use water as a tool: They spit water into a vertical tube to make a peanut float upwards until it comes into reach (floating peanut task; FPT). In the current study, we used the FPT to investigate how visual feedback, an end-state demonstration and a social demonstration affect task performance in nonhuman great apes in three experiments. Our results indicate that apes who had acquired the solution with a clear tube maintained it with an opaque one. However, apes starting with an opaque tube failed to solve the task. Additionally, facing the peanut floating on a water-filled tube (i.e., an end-state demonstration) promoted success independent on the availability of visual feedback. Moreover, experiencing how water was poured into the tube either by a human demonstrator or by a water tap that had been opened either by the ape or a human did not seem to be of further assistance. First, this study suggests that great apes require visual feedback for solving the FPT, which is no longer required after the initial acquisition. Second, some subjects benefit from encountering the end-state, a finding corroborating previous studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonja J Ebel
- Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany. .,School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Mary's Quad, South Street, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JP, Scotland, UK.
| | - Martin Schmelz
- Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14 (UZA1), 1090, Vienna, Austria
| | - Esther Herrmann
- Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Josep Call
- Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.,School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Mary's Quad, South Street, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JP, Scotland, UK
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9
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Affiliation(s)
- Douglas H. Erwin
- Department of Paleobiology, MRC-121, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, District of Columbia
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico
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10
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Packard N, Bedau MA, Channon A, Ikegami T, Rasmussen S, Stanley KO, Taylor T. An Overview of Open-Ended Evolution: Editorial Introduction to the Open-Ended Evolution II Special Issue. ARTIFICIAL LIFE 2019; 25:93-103. [PMID: 31150285 DOI: 10.1162/artl_a_00291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Nature's spectacular inventiveness, reflected in the enormous diversity of form and function displayed by the biosphere, is a feature of life that distinguishes living most strongly from nonliving. It is, therefore, not surprising that this aspect of life should become a central focus of artificial life. We have known since Darwin that the diversity is produced dynamically, through the process of evolution; this has led life's creative productivity to be called Open-Ended Evolution (OEE) in the field. This article introduces the second of two special issues on current research in OEE and provides an overview of the contents of both special issues. Most of the work was presented at a workshop on open-ended evolution that was held as a part of the 2018 Conference on Artificial Life in Tokyo, and much of it had antecedents in two previous workshops on open-ended evolution at artificial life conferences in Cancun and York. We present a simplified categorization of OEE and summarize progress in the field as represented by the articles in this special issue.
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11
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Taylor T. Evolutionary Innovations and Where to Find Them: Routes to Open-Ended Evolution in Natural and Artificial Systems. ARTIFICIAL LIFE 2019; 25:207-224. [PMID: 31150286 DOI: 10.1162/artl_a_00290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
This article presents a high-level conceptual framework to help orient the discussion and implementation of open-endedness in evolutionary systems. Drawing upon earlier work by Banzhaf et al. (2016), three different kinds of open-endedness are identified: exploratory, expansive, and transformational. These are characterized in terms of their relationship to the search space of phenotypic behaviors. A formalism is introduced to describe three key processes required for an evolutionary process: the generation of a phenotype from a genetic description, the evaluation of that phenotype, and the reproduction with variation of individuals according to their evaluation. The formalism makes explicit various influences in each of these processes that can easily be overlooked. The distinction is made between intrinsic and extrinsic implementations of these processes. A discussion then investigates how various interactions between these processes, and their modes of implementation, can lead to open-endedness. However, an important contribution of the article is the demonstration that these considerations relate to exploratory open-endedness only. Conditions for the implementation of the more interesting kinds of open-endedness-expansive and transformational-are also discussed, emphasizing factors such as multiple domains of behavior, transdomain bridges, and non-additive compositional systems. In contrast to a traditional Darwinian analysis, these factors relate not to the generic evolutionary properties of individuals and populations, but rather to the nature of the building blocks out of which individual organisms are constructed, and the laws and properties of the environment in which they exist. The article ends with suggestions of how the framework can be used to categorize and compare the open-ended evolutionary potential of different systems, how it might guide the design of systems with greater capacity for open-ended evolution, and how it might be further improved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim Taylor
- Monash University, Faculty of Information Technology.
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12
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Erwin DH. The topology of evolutionary novelty and innovation in macroevolution. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 372:rstb.2016.0422. [PMID: 29061895 PMCID: PMC5665810 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/16/2017] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Sewall Wright's fitness landscape introduced the concept of evolutionary spaces in 1932. George Gaylord Simpson modified this to an adaptive, phenotypic landscape in 1944 and since then evolutionary spaces have played an important role in evolutionary theory through fitness and adaptive landscapes, phenotypic and functional trait spaces, morphospaces and related concepts. Although the topology of such spaces is highly variable, from locally Euclidean to pre-topological, evolutionary change has often been interpreted as a search through a pre-existing space of possibilities, with novelty arising by accessing previously inaccessible or difficult to reach regions of a space. Here I discuss the nature of evolutionary novelty and innovation within the context of evolutionary spaces, and argue that the primacy of search as a conceptual metaphor ignores the generation of new spaces as well as other changes that have played important evolutionary roles.This article is part of the themed issue 'Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Douglas H Erwin
- Department of Paleobiology MRC-121, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, PO Box 37012, DC 20013-7012, USA .,Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
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13
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Aktipis A, Maley CC. Cooperation and cheating as innovation: insights from cellular societies. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 372:rstb.2016.0421. [PMID: 29061894 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/30/2017] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The capacity to innovate is often considered a defining feature of human societies, but it is not a capacity that is unique to human societies: innovation occurs in cellular societies as well. Cellular societies such as multicellular bodies and microbial communities, including the human microbiome, are capable of innovation in response to novel opportunities and threats. Multicellularity represents a suite of innovations for cellular cooperation, but multicellularity also opened up novel opportunities for cells to cheat, exploiting the infrastructure and resources of the body. Multicellular bodies evolve less quickly than the cells within them, leaving them vulnerable to cellular innovations that can lead to cancer and infections. In order to counter these threats, multicellular bodies deploy additional innovations including the adaptive immune system and the development of partnerships with preferred microbial partners. What can we learn from examining these innovations in cooperation and cheating in cellular societies? First, innovation in social systems involves a constant tension between novel mechanisms that enable greater size and complexity of cooperative entities and novel ways of cheating. Second, cultivating cooperation with partners who can rapidly and effectively innovate (such as microbes) is important for large entities including multicellular bodies. And third, multicellularity enabled cells to manage risk socially, allowing organisms to survive in challenging environments where life would otherwise be impossible. Throughout, we ask how insights from cellular societies might be translated into new innovations in human health and medicine, promoting and protecting the cellular cooperation that makes us viable multicellular organisms.This article is part of the themed issue 'Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Athena Aktipis
- Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA .,Center for Evolution and Cancer, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
| | - Carlo C Maley
- Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA.,School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
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14
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Fortuna MA, Zaman L, Wagner A, Bascompte J. Non-adaptive origins of evolutionary innovations increase network complexity in interacting digital organisms. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 372:rstb.2016.0431. [PMID: 29061902 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0431] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/19/2017] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
The origin of evolutionary innovations is a central problem in evolutionary biology. To what extent such innovations have adaptive or non-adaptive origins is hard to assess in real organisms. This limitation, however, can be overcome using digital organisms, i.e. self-replicating computer programs that mutate, evolve and coevolve within a user-defined computational environment. Here, we quantify the role of the non-adaptive origins of host resistance traits in determining the evolution of ecological interactions among host and parasite digital organisms. We find that host resistance traits arising spontaneously as exaptations increase the complexity of antagonistic host-parasite networks. Specifically, they lead to higher host phenotypic diversification, a larger number of ecological interactions and higher heterogeneity in interaction strengths. Given the potential of network architecture to affect network dynamics, such exaptations may increase the persistence of entire communities. Our in silico approach, therefore, may complement current theoretical advances aimed at disentangling the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms shaping species interaction networks.This article is part of the themed issue 'Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miguel A Fortuna
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Luis Zaman
- Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1800, USA.,Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Andreas Wagner
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.,Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.,The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
| | - Jordi Bascompte
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
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15
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West T, Sojo V, Pomiankowski A, Lane N. The origin of heredity in protocells. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 372:rstb.2016.0419. [PMID: 29061892 PMCID: PMC5665807 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0419] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/25/2017] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Here we develop a computational model that examines one of the first major biological innovations-the origin of heredity in simple protocells. The model assumes that the earliest protocells were autotrophic, producing organic matter from CO2 and H2 Carbon fixation was facilitated by geologically sustained proton gradients across fatty acid membranes, via iron-sulfur nanocrystals lodged within the membranes. Thermodynamic models suggest that organics formed this way should include amino acids and fatty acids. We assume that fatty acids partition to the membrane. Some hydrophobic amino acids chelate FeS nanocrystals, producing three positive feedbacks: (i) an increase in catalytic surface area; (ii) partitioning of FeS nanocrystals to the membrane; and (iii) a proton-motive active site for carbon fixing that mimics the enzyme Ech. These positive feedbacks enable the fastest-growing protocells to dominate the early ecosystem through a simple form of heredity. We propose that as new organics are produced inside the protocells, the localized high-energy environment is more likely to form ribonucleotides, linking RNA replication to its ability to drive protocell growth from the beginning. Our novel conceptualization sets out conditions under which protocell heredity and competition could arise, and points to where crucial experimental work is required.This article is part of the themed issue 'Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timothy West
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.,Centre for Computation, Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology (CoMPLEX), University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Victor Sojo
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.,Centre for Computation, Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology (CoMPLEX), University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.,Systems Biophysics, Faculty of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, Amalienstr. 54, 80799 Munich, Germany
| | - Andrew Pomiankowski
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.,Centre for Computation, Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology (CoMPLEX), University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Nick Lane
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK .,Centre for Computation, Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology (CoMPLEX), University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
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16
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Weinberger VP, Quiñinao C, Marquet PA. Innovation and the growth of human population. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 372:rstb.2016.0415. [PMID: 29061888 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/31/2017] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Biodiversity is sustained by and is essential to the services that ecosystems provide. Different species would use these services in different ways, or adaptive strategies, which are sustained in time by continuous innovations. Using this framework, we postulate a model for a biological species (Homo sapiens) in a finite world where innovations, aimed at increasing the flux of ecosystem services (a measure of habitat quality), increase with population size, and have positive effects on the generation of new innovations (positive feedback) as well as costs in terms of negatively affecting the provision of ecosystem services. We applied this model to human populations, where technological innovations are driven by cumulative cultural evolution. Our model shows that depending on the net impact of a technology on the provision of ecosystem services (θ), and the strength of technological feedback (ξ), different regimes can result. Among them, the human population can fill the entire planet while maximizing their well-being, but not exhaust ecosystem services. However, this outcome requires positive or green technologies that increase the provision of ecosystem services with few negative externalities or environmental costs, and that have a strong positive feedback in generating new technologies of the same kind. If the feedback is small, then the technological stock can collapse together with the human population. Scenarios where technological innovations generate net negative impacts may be associated with a limited technological stock as well as a limited human population at equilibrium and the potential for collapse. The only way to fill the planet with humans under this scenario of negative technologies is by reducing the technological stock to a minimum. Otherwise, the only feasible equilibrium is associated with population collapse. Our model points out that technological innovations per se may not help humans to grow and dominate the planet. Instead, different possibilities unfold for our future depending on their impact on the environment and on further innovation.This article is part of the themed issue 'Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies'.
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Affiliation(s)
- V P Weinberger
- Departamento de Ecología, CSIC-PUC), Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile.,Instituto de Ecología & Biodiversidad (IEB), Casilla 653, Santiago, Chile
| | - C Quiñinao
- CIMFAV, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Valparaíso, General Cruz 222, Valparaíso, Chile.,Instituto de Ciencias de la Ingeniería, Escuela de Ingeniería, Universidad de O'Higgins, Av. Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins 611, Rancagua, Chile
| | - P A Marquet
- Departamento de Ecología, CSIC-PUC), Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile .,Laboratorio Internacional en Cambio Global (LINCGlobal, CSIC-PUC), Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile.,Instituto de Ecología & Biodiversidad (IEB), Casilla 653, Santiago, Chile.,The Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA.,Centro de Cambio Global (PUC-Global), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.,Instituto de Sistemas Complejos de Valparaíso (ISCV), Artillería 470, Cerro Artillería, Valparaíso, Chile
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17
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McGuigan N, Burdett E, Burgess V, Dean L, Lucas A, Vale G, Whiten A. Innovation and social transmission in experimental micro-societies: exploring the scope of cumulative culture in young children. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 372:rstb.2016.0425. [PMID: 29061897 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/26/2017] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The experimental study of cumulative culture and the innovations essential to it is a young science, with child studies so rare that the scope of cumulative cultural capacities in childhood remains largely unknown. Here we report a new experimental approach to the inherent complexity of these phenomena. Groups of 3-4-year-old children were presented with an elaborate array of challenges affording the potential cumulative development of a variety of techniques to gain increasingly attractive rewards. In contrast to a prior study, we found evidence for elementary forms of cumulative cultural progress, with inventions of solutions at lower levels spreading to become shared innovations, and some children then building on these to create more advanced but more rewarding innovations. This contrasted with markedly more constrained progress when children worked only by themselves, or if groups faced only the highest-level challenges from the start. Further experiments that introduced higher-level inventions via the inclusion of older children, or that created ecological change, with the easiest habitual solutions no longer possible, encouraged higher levels of cumulative innovation. Our results show children are not merely 'cultural sponges', but when acting in groups, display the beginnings of cycles of innovation and observational learning that sustain cumulative progress in problem solving.This article is part of the themed issue 'Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola McGuigan
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK.,School of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK
| | - Emily Burdett
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK.,Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PN, UK.,Brain, Belief, and Behavior Lab; Centre for Psychology, Behaviour, and Achievement, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
| | - Vanessa Burgess
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK
| | - Lewis Dean
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK
| | - Amanda Lucas
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK.,College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter TR10 9EZ, UK
| | - Gillian Vale
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK.,National Center for Chimpanzee Care, Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bastrop, TX, USA.,Departments of Psychology and Philosophy, Neuroscience, Institute and Language Research Center, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, South Street, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK
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