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Bentley MA, Yates CA, Hein J, Preston GM, Foster KR. Pleiotropic constraints promote the evolution of cooperation in cellular groups. PLoS Biol 2022; 20:e3001626. [PMID: 35658016 PMCID: PMC9166655 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001626] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2021] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The evolution of cooperation in cellular groups is threatened by lineages of cheaters that proliferate at the expense of the group. These cell lineages occur within microbial communities, and multicellular organisms in the form of tumours and cancer. In contrast to an earlier study, here we show how the evolution of pleiotropic genetic architectures-which link the expression of cooperative and private traits-can protect against cheater lineages and allow cooperation to evolve. We develop an age-structured model of cellular groups and show that cooperation breaks down more slowly within groups that tie expression to a private trait than in groups that do not. We then show that this results in group selection for pleiotropy, which strongly promotes cooperation by limiting the emergence of cheater lineages. These results predict that pleiotropy will rapidly evolve, so long as groups persist long enough for cheater lineages to threaten cooperation. Our results hold when pleiotropic links can be undermined by mutations, when pleiotropy is itself costly, and in mixed-genotype groups such as those that occur in microbes. Finally, we consider features of multicellular organisms-a germ line and delayed reproductive maturity-and show that pleiotropy is again predicted to be important for maintaining cooperation. The study of cancer in multicellular organisms provides the best evidence for pleiotropic constraints, where abberant cell proliferation is linked to apoptosis, senescence, and terminal differentiation. Alongside development from a single cell, we propose that the evolution of pleiotropic constraints has been critical for cooperation in many cellular groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael A. Bentley
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Christian A. Yates
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom
| | - Jotun Hein
- Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Gail M. Preston
- Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Kevin R. Foster
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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2
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Rodrigues AMM, Barker JL, Robinson EJH. From inter-group conflict to inter-group cooperation: insights from social insects. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20210466. [PMID: 35369743 PMCID: PMC8977659 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 01/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
The conflict between social groups is widespread, often imposing significant costs across multiple groups. The social insects make an ideal system for investigating inter-group relationships, because their interaction types span the full harming-helping continuum, from aggressive conflict, to mutual tolerance, to cooperation between spatially separate groups. Here we review inter-group conflict in the social insects and the various means by which they reduce the costs of conflict, including individual or colony-level avoidance, ritualistic behaviours and even group fusion. At the opposite extreme of the harming-helping continuum, social insect groups may peacefully exchange resources and thus cooperate between groups in a manner rare outside human societies. We discuss the role of population viscosity in favouring inter-group cooperation. We present a model encompassing intra- and inter-group interactions, and local and long-distance dispersal. We show that in this multi-level population structure, the increased likelihood of cooperative partners being kin is balanced by increased kin competition, such that neither cooperation (helping) nor conflict (harming) is favoured. This model provides a baseline context in which other intra- and inter-group processes act, tipping the balance toward or away from conflict. We discuss future directions for research into the ecological factors shaping the evolution of inter-group interactions. This article is part of the theme issue 'Intergroup conflict across taxa'.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jessica L. Barker
- Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Alaska, Anchorage, AK 99503, USA
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3
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Kjeldgaard MK, Eyer PA, McMichael CC, Bockoven AA, King JT, Hyodo A, Boutton TW, Vargo EL, Eubanks MD. Distinct colony boundaries and larval discrimination in polygyne red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta). Mol Ecol 2021; 31:1007-1020. [PMID: 34747530 DOI: 10.1111/mec.16264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2020] [Revised: 10/28/2021] [Accepted: 11/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Evaluating the factors that promote invasive ant abundance is critical to assess their ecological impact and inform their management. Many invasive ant species show reduced nestmate recognition and an absence of boundaries between unrelated nests, which allow populations to achieve greater densities due to reduced intraspecific competition. We examined nestmate discrimination and colony boundaries in introduced populations of the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta; hereafter, fire ant). Fire ants occur in two social forms: monogyne (colonies with a single egg-laying queen) and polygyne (colonies with multiple egg-laying queens). In contrast with monogyne nests, polygyne nests are thought to be interconnected due to the reduced antagonism between non-nestmate polygyne workers, perhaps because polygyne workers habituate the colony to an odour unique to Gp-9b -carrying adults. However, colony boundaries and nestmate discrimination are poorly documented, particularly for worker-brood interactions. To delimit boundaries between field colonies, we correlated the exchange of a 15 N-glycine tracer dissolved in a sucrose solution with social form. We also evaluated nestmate discrimination between polygyne workers and larvae in the laboratory. Counter to our expectations, polygyne colonies behaved identically to monogyne colonies, suggesting both social forms maintain strict colony boundaries. Polygyne workers also preferentially fed larval nestmates and may have selectively cannibalized non-nestmates. The levels of relatedness among workers in polygyne colonies was higher than those previously reported in North America (mean ± standard error: 0.269 ± 0.037). Our study highlights the importance of combining genetic analyses with direct quantification of resource exchange to better understand the factors influencing ant invasions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Pierre-André Eyer
- Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
| | - Collin C McMichael
- Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
| | - Alison A Bockoven
- Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
| | - Joanie T King
- Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
| | - Ayumi Hyodo
- Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
| | - Thomas W Boutton
- Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
| | - Edward L Vargo
- Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
| | - Micky D Eubanks
- Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
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4
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Liu M, Chen BF, Rubenstein DR, Shen SF. Social rank modulates how environmental quality influences cooperation and conflict within animal societies. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20201720. [PMID: 32993473 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Although dominance hierarchies occur in most societies, our understanding of how these power structures influence individual investment in cooperative and competitive behaviours remains elusive. Both conflict and cooperation in animal societies are often environmentally regulated, yet how individuals alter their cooperative and competitive investments as environmental quality changes remain unclear. Using game theoretic modelling, we predict that individuals of all ranks will invest more in cooperation and less in social conflict in harsh environments than individuals of the same ranks in benign environments. Counterintuitively, low-ranking subordinates should increase their investment in cooperation proportionally more than high-ranking dominants, suggesting that subordinates contribute relatively more when facing environmental challenges. We then test and confirm these predictions experimentally using the Asian burying beetle Nicrophorus nepalensis. Ultimately, we demonstrate how social rank modulates the relationships between environmental quality and cooperative and competitive behaviours, a topic crucial for understanding the evolution of complex societies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark Liu
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
| | - Bo-Fei Chen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
| | - Dustin R Rubenstein
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.,Center for Integrative Animal Behavior, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Sheng-Feng Shen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
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5
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Yamawo A, Mukai H. Outcome of interspecific competition depends on genotype of conspecific neighbours. Oecologia 2020; 193:415-423. [DOI: 10.1007/s00442-020-04694-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2019] [Accepted: 03/30/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
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6
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Liu 劉彥廷 M, Chan 詹仕凡 SF, Rubenstein DR, Sun 孫烜駿 SJ, Chen 陳伯飛 BF, Shen 沈聖峰 SF. Ecological Transitions in Grouping Benefits Explain the Paradox of Environmental Quality and Sociality. Am Nat 2020; 195:818-832. [PMID: 32364780 DOI: 10.1086/708185] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Both benign and harsh environments promote the evolution of sociality. This paradox-societies occur in environments of such contrasting quality-may be explained by the different types of benefits that individuals receive from grouping: resource defense benefits that derive from group-defended critical resources versus collective action benefits that result from social cooperation among group members. Here, we investigate cooperative behavior in the burying beetle Nicrophorus nepalensis along an elevational gradient where environmental quality (climate and competition) varies with altitude. We show that climate (temperature) and competition (both intra- and interspecific) independently and synergistically influence sociality via different grouping benefits that vary along the gradient. At low elevations where interspecific competition for resources is intense, groups gain from the collective action benefit of increased interspecific competitive ability. In contrast, pairs have higher fitness at intermediate elevations where intraspecific competition for resources is greatest because resource defense is the key grouping benefit. However, groups and pairs have similar fitness at high elevations, suggesting that there is no grouping benefit in such physiologically challenging environments. Our results demonstrate that sociality is favored for different reasons under a range of environmental conditions, perhaps explaining why animal societies occur in environments of such contrasting quality.
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7
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Chen B, Liu M, Rubenstein DR, Sun S, Liu J, Lin Y, Shen S. A chemically triggered transition from conflict to cooperation in burying beetles. Ecol Lett 2020; 23:467-475. [DOI: 10.1111/ele.13445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2019] [Revised: 11/05/2019] [Accepted: 11/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Bo‐Fei Chen
- Biodiversity Research Center Academia Sinica Taipei 11529 Taiwan
| | - Mark Liu
- Biodiversity Research Center Academia Sinica Taipei 11529 Taiwan
| | - Dustin R. Rubenstein
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology Columbia University 1200 Amsterdam Avenue New York NY 10027 USA
| | - Syuan‐Jyun Sun
- Biodiversity Research Center Academia Sinica Taipei 11529 Taiwan
| | - Jian‐Nan Liu
- Biodiversity Research Center Academia Sinica Taipei 11529 Taiwan
| | - Yu‐Heng Lin
- Biodiversity Research Center Academia Sinica Taipei 11529 Taiwan
| | - Sheng‐Feng Shen
- Biodiversity Research Center Academia Sinica Taipei 11529 Taiwan
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8
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Strickland K, Frère CH. Individual Variation in the Social Plasticity of Water Dragons. Am Nat 2019; 194:194-206. [DOI: 10.1086/704089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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9
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Casalla Daza R, Korb J. Phylogenetic Community Structure and Niche Differentiation in Termites of the Tropical Dry Forests of Colombia. INSECTS 2019; 10:E103. [PMID: 30974858 PMCID: PMC6523111 DOI: 10.3390/insects10040103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2018] [Revised: 04/03/2019] [Accepted: 04/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The mechanisms that structure species communities are still debated. We addressed this question for termite assemblages from tropical dry forests in Colombia. These forests are endangered and poorly understood ecosystems and termites are important ecosystem engineers in the tropics. Using biodiversity and environmental data, combined with phylogenetic community analyses, trait mapping, and stable isotopes studies, we investigated the termite community composition of three protected dry forests in Colombia. Our data suggest that the structuring mechanisms differed between sites. Phylogenetic overdispersion of termite assemblages correlated with decreasing rainfall and elevation and increasing temperature. Food niche traits-classified as feeding groups and quantified by δ15N‰ and δ13C‰ isotope signatures-were phylogenetically conserved. Hence, the overdispersion pattern implies increasing interspecific competition with decreasing drier and warmer conditions, which is also supported by fewer species occurring at the driest site. Our results are in line with a hypothesis that decreased biomass production limits resource availability for termites, which leads to competition. Along with this comes a diet shift: termites from drier plots had higher δ13C signatures, reflecting higher δ13C values in the litter and more C4 plants. Our study shows how a phylogenetic community approach combined with trait analyses can contribute to gaining the first insights into mechanisms structuring whole termite assemblages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robin Casalla Daza
- Departamento de Química y Biología, Universidad del Norte, Kilómetro 5 Antigua vía Puerto Colombia, 081007-Puerto Colombia, Colombia.
| | - Judith Korb
- Evolutionary Biology & Ecology, University of Freiburg, Hauptstrasse 1, 79104-Freiburg, Germany.
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10
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11
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Dolinšek J, Goldschmidt F, Johnson DR. Synthetic microbial ecology and the dynamic interplay between microbial genotypes. FEMS Microbiol Rev 2018; 40:961-979. [PMID: 28201744 DOI: 10.1093/femsre/fuw024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Revised: 01/27/2016] [Accepted: 07/04/2016] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Assemblages of microbial genotypes growing together can display surprisingly complex and unexpected dynamics and result in community-level functions and behaviors that are not readily expected from analyzing each genotype in isolation. This complexity has, at least in part, inspired a discipline of synthetic microbial ecology. Synthetic microbial ecology focuses on designing, building and analyzing the dynamic behavior of ‘ecological circuits’ (i.e. a set of interacting microbial genotypes) and understanding how community-level properties emerge as a consequence of those interactions. In this review, we discuss typical objectives of synthetic microbial ecology and the main advantages and rationales of using synthetic microbial assemblages. We then summarize recent findings of current synthetic microbial ecology investigations. In particular, we focus on the causes and consequences of the interplay between different microbial genotypes and illustrate how simple interactions can create complex dynamics and promote unexpected community-level properties. We finally propose that distinguishing between active and passive interactions and accounting for the pervasiveness of competition can improve existing frameworks for designing and predicting the dynamics of microbial assemblages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Dolinšek
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Felix Goldschmidt
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - David R Johnson
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
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12
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Monteiro I, Viana-Junior AB, de Castro Solar RR, de Siqueira Neves F, DeSouza O. Disturbance-modulated symbioses in termitophily. Ecol Evol 2017; 7:10829-10838. [PMID: 29299261 PMCID: PMC5743531 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.3601] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2017] [Revised: 09/13/2017] [Accepted: 10/02/2017] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Symbiosis, the living-together of unlike organisms, underlies every major transition in evolution and pervades most ecological dynamics. Among examples of symbioses, the simultaneous occupation of a termite nest by its builder termites and intruding invertebrate species (so-called termitophily) provides suitable macroscopic scenarios for the study of species coexistence in confined environments. Current evidence on termitophily abounds for dynamics occurring at the interindividual level within the termitarium, but is insufficient for broader scales such as the community and the landscape. Here, we inspect the effects of abiotic disturbance on termitophile presence and function in termitaria at these broader scales. To do so, we censused the termitophile communities inhabiting 30 termitaria of distinct volumes which had been exposed to increasing degrees of fire-induced disturbance in a savanna-like ecosystem in southeastern Brazil. We provide evidence that such an abiotic disturbance can ease the living-together of termitophiles and termites. Putative processes facilitating these symbioses, however, varied according to the invader. For nonsocial invaders, disturbance seemed to boost coexistence with termites via the habitat amelioration that termitaria provided under wildfire, as suggested by the positive correlation between disturbance degree and termitophile abundance and richness. As for social invaders (ants), disturbance seemed to enhance associational defenses with termites, as suggested by the negative correlation between the presence of ant colonies and the richness and abundance of other termitarium-cohabiting termitophiles. It is then apparent that disturbance-modulated distinct symbioses in these termite nests.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ivan Monteiro
- Departamento de EcologiaInstituto de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte MG Brazil.,Pós-graduação em Ecologia Departamento de Biologia Geral Universidade Federal de Viçosa Viçosa MG Brazil
| | - Arleu Barbosa Viana-Junior
- Departamento de EcologiaInstituto de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte MG Brazil.,Pós-graduação em Ecologia Departamento de Biologia Geral Universidade Federal de Viçosa Viçosa MG Brazil
| | - Ricardo Ribeiro de Castro Solar
- Departamento de EcologiaInstituto de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte MG Brazil.,Pós-graduação em Ecologia Departamento de Biologia Geral Universidade Federal de Viçosa Viçosa MG Brazil
| | - Frederico de Siqueira Neves
- Departamento de EcologiaInstituto de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte MG Brazil.,Pós-graduação em Ecologia Departamento de Biologia Geral Universidade Federal de Viçosa Viçosa MG Brazil
| | - Og DeSouza
- Departamento de Entomologia Universidade Federal de Viçosa Viçosa MG Brazil
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13
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Santos AA, de Oliveira BMS, Melo CR, Lima APS, Santana EDR, Blank AF, Picanço MC, Araújo APA, Cristaldo PF, Bacci L. Sub-lethal effects of essential oil of Lippia sidoides on drywood termite Cryptotermes brevis (Blattodea: Termitoidea). ECOTOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY 2017; 145:436-441. [PMID: 28778042 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2017.07.057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2017] [Revised: 07/18/2017] [Accepted: 07/24/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
The drywood termite Cryptotermes brevis (Walker, 1853) (Kalotermitidae) is one of the most important wood structural pest in the world. Substances from the secondary metabolism of plants (e.g., essential oils) have been considered an environmentally safer form of control for urban pests, such as termites. In the present study, we analyzed the lethal and sub-lethal effects of essential oil of Lippia sidoides and its major components on C. brevis pseudergates in two routes of exposure (contact and fumigation). The essential oil of L. sidoides and thymol were more toxic to C. brevis pseudergates when applied by contact (LD50 = 9.33 and 8.20µgmg-1, respectively) and by fumigation (LC50 = 9.10 and 23.6µLL-1, respectively). In general, treatments changed the individual and collective behaviors of C. brevis pseudergates, as well as the displacement and walking speed. The essential oil of L. sidoides and its major components showed a high potential to control C. brevis pseudergates, due to the bioactivity in the two routes of exposure and the sub-lethal effects on the behavior and walking, important activities for the cohesion of C. brevis colonies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abraão Almeida Santos
- Departamento de Engenharia Agronômica, and Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Sergipe 49100-000, Brazil; Departamento de Entomologia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais 36570-900, Brazil
| | - Bruna Maria Santos de Oliveira
- Departamento de Engenharia Agronômica, and Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Sergipe 49100-000, Brazil
| | - Carlisson Ramos Melo
- Departamento de Engenharia Agronômica, and Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Sergipe 49100-000, Brazil
| | - Ana Paula Santana Lima
- Departamento de Engenharia Agronômica, and Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Sergipe 49100-000, Brazil
| | - Emile Dayara Rabelo Santana
- Departamento de Engenharia Agronômica, and Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Sergipe 49100-000, Brazil
| | - Arie Fitzgerald Blank
- Departamento de Engenharia Agronômica, and Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Sergipe 49100-000, Brazil
| | - Marcelo Coutinho Picanço
- Departamento de Entomologia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais 36570-900, Brazil
| | - Ana Paula Albano Araújo
- Departamento de Engenharia Agronômica, and Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Sergipe 49100-000, Brazil
| | - Paulo Fellipe Cristaldo
- Departamento de Engenharia Agronômica, and Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Sergipe 49100-000, Brazil
| | - Leandro Bacci
- Departamento de Engenharia Agronômica, and Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Sergipe 49100-000, Brazil.
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14
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Oberst S, Bann G, Lai JCS, Evans TA. Cryptic termites avoid predatory ants by eavesdropping on vibrational cues from their footsteps. Ecol Lett 2017; 20:212-221. [PMID: 28111901 DOI: 10.1111/ele.12727] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2016] [Revised: 09/19/2016] [Accepted: 11/30/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Eavesdropping has evolved in many predator-prey relationships. Communication signals of social species may be particularly vulnerable to eavesdropping, such as pheromones produced by ants, which are predators of termites. Termites communicate mostly by way of substrate-borne vibrations, which suggest they may be able to eavesdrop, using two possible mechanisms: ant chemicals or ant vibrations. We observed termites foraging within millimetres of ants in the field, suggesting the evolution of specialised detection behaviours. We found the termite Coptotermes acinaciformis detected their major predator, the ant Iridomyrmex purpureus, through thin wood using only vibrational cues from walking, and not chemical signals. Comparison of 16 termite and ant species found the ants-walking signals were up to 100 times higher than those of termites. Eavesdropping on passive walking signals explains the predator detection and foraging behaviours in this ancient relationship, which may be applicable to many other predator-prey relationships.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Oberst
- Acoustics & Vibration Unit, School of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of New South Wales, Canberra, ACT, 2600, Australia.,CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Clunies Ross Street, Canberra, ACT, 2600, Australia
| | - Glen Bann
- Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2600, Australia
| | - Joseph C S Lai
- Acoustics & Vibration Unit, School of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of New South Wales, Canberra, ACT, 2600, Australia
| | - Theodore A Evans
- School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6009, Australia
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15
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Antibiotic stress selects against cooperation in the pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2017; 114:546-551. [PMID: 28049833 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1612522114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Cheats are a pervasive threat to public goods production in natural and human communities, as they benefit from the commons without contributing to it. Although ecological antagonisms such as predation, parasitism, competition, and abiotic environmental stress play key roles in shaping population biology, it is unknown how such stresses generally affect the ability of cheats to undermine cooperation. We used theory and experiments to address this question in the pathogenic bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa Although public goods producers were selected against in all populations, our competition experiments showed that antibiotics significantly increased the advantage of nonproducers. Moreover, the dominance of nonproducers in mixed cultures was associated with higher resistance to antibiotics than in either monoculture. Mathematical modeling indicates that accentuated costs to producer phenotypes underlie the observed patterns. Mathematical analysis further shows how these patterns should generalize to other taxa with public goods behaviors. Our findings suggest that explaining the maintenance of cooperative public goods behaviors in certain natural systems will be more challenging than previously thought. Our results also have specific implications for the control of pathogenic bacteria using antibiotics and for understanding natural bacterial ecosystems, where subinhibitory concentrations of antimicrobials frequently occur.
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16
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Resource availability influences aggression and response to chemical cues in the Neotropical termite Nasutitermes aff. coxipoensis (Termitidae: Nasutitermitinae). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-016-2134-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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17
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Hausberger B, Korb J. The Impact of Anthropogenic Disturbance on Assembly Patterns of Termite Communities. Biotropica 2016. [DOI: 10.1111/btp.12278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Barbara Hausberger
- Behavioural Biology; University of Osnabrück; Barbarastrasse 11 D-49076 Osnabrück Germany
| | - Judith Korb
- Behavioural Biology; University of Osnabrück; Barbarastrasse 11 D-49076 Osnabrück Germany
- Evolutionary Biology & Ecology; University of Freiburg; Hauptstrasse 1 D-79104 Freiburg Germany
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18
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Barker JL, Loope KJ, Reeve HK. Asymmetry within social groups: division of labour and intergroup competition. J Evol Biol 2015; 29:560-71. [PMID: 26663312 PMCID: PMC4784174 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.12805] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2015] [Revised: 10/22/2015] [Accepted: 12/01/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Social animals vary in their ability to compete with group members over shared resources and also vary in their cooperative efforts to produce these resources. Competition among groups can promote within-group cooperation, but many existing models of intergroup cooperation do not explicitly account for observations that group members invest differentially in cooperation and that there are often within-group competitive or power asymmetries. We present a game theoretic model of intergroup competition that investigates how such asymmetries affect within-group cooperation. In this model, group members adopt one of two roles, with relative competitive efficiency and the number of individuals varying between roles. Players in each role make simultaneous, coevolving decisions. The model predicts that although intergroup competition increases cooperative contributions to group resources by both roles, contributions are predominantly from individuals in the less competitively efficient role, whereas individuals in the more competitively efficient role generally gain the larger share of these resources. When asymmetry in relative competitive efficiency is greater, a group's per capita cooperation (averaged across both roles) is higher, due to increased cooperation from the competitively inferior individuals. For extreme asymmetry in relative competitive efficiency, per capita cooperation is highest in groups with a single competitively superior individual and many competitively inferior individuals, because the latter acquiesce and invest in cooperation rather than within-group competition. These predictions are consistent with observed features of many societies, such as monogynous Hymenoptera with many workers and caste dimorphism.
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Affiliation(s)
- J L Barker
- Department of Neurobiology & Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | - K J Loope
- Department of Neurobiology & Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | - H K Reeve
- Department of Neurobiology & Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
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19
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Tsai KN, Lin SH, Liu WC, Wang D. Inferring microbial interaction network from microbiome data using RMN algorithm. BMC SYSTEMS BIOLOGY 2015; 9:54. [PMID: 26337930 PMCID: PMC4560064 DOI: 10.1186/s12918-015-0199-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2015] [Accepted: 08/20/2015] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Background Microbial interactions are ubiquitous in nature. Recently, many similarity-based approaches have been developed to study the interaction in microbial ecosystems. These approaches can only explain the non-directional interactions yet a more complete view on how microbes regulate each other remains elusive. In addition, the strength of microbial interactions is difficult to be quantified by only using correlation analysis. Results In this study, a rule-based microbial network (RMN) algorithm, which integrates regulatory OTU-triplet model with parametric weighting function, is being developed to construct microbial regulatory networks. The RMN algorithm not only can extrapolate the cooperative and competitive relationships between microbes, but also can infer the direction of such interactions. In addition, RMN algorithm can theoretically characterize the regulatory relationship composed of microbial pairs with low correlation coefficient in microbial networks. Our results suggested that Bifidobacterium, Streptococcus, Clostridium XI, and Bacteroides are essential for causing abundance changes of Veillonella in gut microbiome. Furthermore, we inferred some possible microbial interactions, including the competitive relationship between Veillonella and Bacteroides, and the cooperative relationship between Veillonella and Clostridium XI. Conclusions The RMN algorithm provides the reconstruction of gut microbe networks, and can shed light on the dynamical interactions of microbes in the infant intestinal tract. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12918-015-0199-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kun-Nan Tsai
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 115, Taiwan. .,Department of Medical Research and Development, Show Chwan Health Care System, Changhua, 505, Taiwan.
| | - Shu-Hsi Lin
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 115, Taiwan.
| | - Wei-Chung Liu
- Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 115, Taiwan.
| | - Daryi Wang
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 115, Taiwan.
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20
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Kokko H, Griffith SC, Pryke SR. The hawk-dove game in a sexually reproducing species explains a colourful polymorphism of an endangered bird. Proc Biol Sci 2014; 281:rspb.2014.1794. [PMID: 25209943 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1794] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The hawk-dove game famously introduced strategic game theory thinking into biology and forms the basis of arguments for limited aggression in animal populations. However, aggressive 'hawks' and peaceful 'doves', with strategies inherited in a discrete manner, have never been documented in a real animal population. Thus, the applicability of game-theoretic arguments to real populations might be contested. Here, we show that the head-colour polymorphism of red and black Gouldian finches (Erythrura gouldiae) provides a real-life example. The aggressive red morph is behaviourally dominant and successfully invades black populations, but when red 'hawks' become too common, their fitness is severely compromised (via decreased parental ability). We also investigate the effects of real-life deviations, particularly sexual reproduction, from the simple original game, which assumed asexual reproduction. A protected polymorphism requires mate choice to be sufficiently assortative. Assortative mating is adaptive for individuals because of genetic incompatibilities affecting hybrid offspring fitness, but by allowing red 'hawks' to persist, it also leads to significantly reduced population sizes. Because reductions in male contributions to parental care are generally known to lead to lower population productivity in birds, we expect zero-sum competition to often have wide ranging population consequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanna Kokko
- Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions, Division of Ecology, Evolution and Genetics, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Institute for Advanced Study, Wallotstrasse 19, 14193 Berlin, Germany
| | - Simon C Griffith
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia
| | - Sarah R Pryke
- Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions, Division of Ecology, Evolution and Genetics, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia
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21
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Sun SJ, Rubenstein DR, Chen BF, Chan SF, Liu JN, Liu M, Hwang W, Yang PS, Shen SF. Climate-mediated cooperation promotes niche expansion in burying beetles. eLife 2014; 3:e02440. [PMID: 24842999 PMCID: PMC4042004 DOI: 10.7554/elife.02440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to form cooperative societies may explain why humans and social insects have come to dominate the earth. Here we examine the ecological consequences of cooperation by quantifying the fitness of cooperative (large groups) and non-cooperative (small groups) phenotypes in burying beetles (Nicrophorus nepalensis) along an elevational and temperature gradient. We experimentally created large and small groups along the gradient and manipulated interspecific competition with flies by heating carcasses. We show that cooperative groups performed as thermal generalists with similarly high breeding success at all temperatures and elevations, whereas non-cooperative groups performed as thermal specialists with higher breeding success only at intermediate temperatures and elevations. Studying the ecological consequences of cooperation may not only help us to understand why so many species of social insects have conquered the earth, but also to determine how climate change will affect the success of these and other social species, including our own. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02440.001 The ability to live and work together in groups likely helped the earliest humans to leave their savannah homes in Africa and successfully settle around the globe. In doing so, humans shifted from being savannah specialists to generalists able to cope with a range of different environments. Cooperation is also believed to be a key to the global success of social insects like bees and ants. However, testing the idea that cooperation allows animals to become generalists that thrive in diverse environments—an idea referred to as the ‘social conquest hypothesis’—is difficult. Climate change has added a new sense of urgency to understanding how species adapt to changing environments, and some studies of humans and other animals have suggested that cooperation may increase or decrease in changing environments. Living in social groups has both benefits and drawbacks: it helps some animals to avoid being eaten by predators, but it also creates more competition for mates, food or other resources. As such, predicting how climate change will impact human and animal societies has also been difficult to test. Sun et al. have now tested the social conquest hypothesis by looking at how changes in environmental conditions affect the social behavior of the burying beetle. These insects find dead animals and then bury them to be eaten by their larvae. Burying beetles often fight each other to ensure that their own young get exclusive access to a food source. However, working together allows the beetles to bury a carcass before flies and other competitors discover it. Sun et al. compared how much the beetles cooperated at different elevations in the mountains of Taiwan. At each elevation the beetles faced different challenges: higher elevations were colder but had fewer flies, while lower elevations were warmer but had more flies. Although burying beetles tended to work together more at warmer elevations, where the competition from flies was the most intense, beetles that cooperated with each other were able to successfully breed at all elevations. On the other hand, beetles that were less cooperative were best adapted to raising their young at more moderate elevations, where the climate and competition were less harsh. Similar results were seen when Sun et al. created non-cooperative and cooperative groups of beetles at different elevations and provided each group with a rat carcass. Further experiments that used heaters to artificially warm the carcasses directly proved that cooperation among beetles was indeed encouraged by higher temperatures. Many studies have suggested that global warming might cause higher levels of conflict in human societies. But by studying how changes in an environment impact cooperation in burying beetles, Sun et al. provide new insights into how climate change may affect the future success of other social animals, including humans. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.02440.002
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Affiliation(s)
- Syuan-Jyun Sun
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan Department of Entomology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Dustin R Rubenstein
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, United States
| | - Bo-Fei Chen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Shih-Fan Chan
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Jian-Nan Liu
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Mark Liu
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Wenbe Hwang
- Department of Ecoscience and Ecotechnology, National University of Tainan, Tainan, Taiwan
| | - Ping-Shih Yang
- Department of Entomology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Sheng-Feng Shen
- Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
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22
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Competitive environments sustain costly altruism with negligible assortment of interactions. Sci Rep 2013; 3:2836. [PMID: 24089101 PMCID: PMC3789156 DOI: 10.1038/srep02836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2013] [Accepted: 09/12/2013] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Competition hinders the evolution of altruism amongst kin when beneficiaries gain at the expense of competing relatives. Altruism is consequently deemed to require stronger kin selection, or trait-selected synergies, or elastic population regulation, to counter this effect. Here we contest the view that competition puts any such demands on altruism. In ecologically realistic scenarios, competition influences both altruism and defection. We show how environments that pit defectors against each other allow strong altruism to evolve even in populations with negligible kin structure and no synergies. Competition amongst defectors presents relative advantages to altruism in the simplest games between altruists and defectors, and the most generic models of altruistic phenotypes or genotypes invading non-altruistic populations under inelastic density regulation. Given the widespread inevitability of competition, selection will often favour altruism because its alternatives provide lower fitness. Strong competition amongst defectors nevertheless undermines altruism, by facilitating invasion of unrelated beneficiaries as parasites.
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23
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Pruitt JN. A real-time eco-evolutionary dead-end strategy is mediated by the traits of lineage progenitors and interactions with colony invaders. Ecol Lett 2013; 16:879-86. [DOI: 10.1111/ele.12123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2012] [Revised: 01/10/2013] [Accepted: 04/10/2013] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan N. Pruitt
- Department of Biological Sciences; University of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania; 15260; USA
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24
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Sanchez A, Gore J. feedback between population and evolutionary dynamics determines the fate of social microbial populations. PLoS Biol 2013; 11:e1001547. [PMID: 23637571 PMCID: PMC3640081 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001547] [Citation(s) in RCA: 130] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2012] [Accepted: 03/14/2013] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
A new study finds that the evolution of social genes may be coupled with population dynamics, and may dramatically affect ecological resilience, particularly in the face of rapidly deteriorating environments. The evolutionary spread of cheater strategies can destabilize populations engaging in social cooperative behaviors, thus demonstrating that evolutionary changes can have profound implications for population dynamics. At the same time, the relative fitness of cooperative traits often depends upon population density, thus leading to the potential for bi-directional coupling between population density and the evolution of a cooperative trait. Despite the potential importance of these eco-evolutionary feedback loops in social species, they have not yet been demonstrated experimentally and their ecological implications are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate the presence of a strong feedback loop between population dynamics and the evolutionary dynamics of a social microbial gene, SUC2, in laboratory yeast populations whose cooperative growth is mediated by the SUC2 gene. We directly visualize eco-evolutionary trajectories of hundreds of populations over 50–100 generations, allowing us to characterize the phase space describing the interplay of evolution and ecology in this system. Small populations collapse despite continual evolution towards increased cooperative allele frequencies; large populations with a sufficient number of cooperators “spiral” to a stable state of coexistence between cooperator and cheater strategies. The presence of cheaters does not significantly affect the equilibrium population density, but it does reduce the resilience of the population as well as its ability to adapt to a rapidly deteriorating environment. Our results demonstrate the potential ecological importance of coupling between evolutionary dynamics and the population dynamics of cooperatively growing organisms, particularly in microbes. Our study suggests that this interaction may need to be considered in order to explain intraspecific variability in cooperative behaviors, and also that this feedback between evolution and ecology can critically affect the demographic fate of those species that rely on cooperation for their survival. The fact that rapid evolution within a species can cause dramatic ecological changes has only recently begun to be appreciated. In particular, it has often been assumed that population dynamics, controlled by ecological circumstances such as the presence of predators or disease, occur at such different timescales compared with evolutionary dynamics that they are effectively de-coupled. Recent studies, however, have found that evolution can occur over ecological timescales and thus may have important effects on ecological dynamics. Here, we demonstrate the presence of a tight coupling between population dynamics and the evolutionary dynamics of a “social” microbial gene, which allows a laboratory population of budding yeast to cooperatively break down sucrose and grow on the simpler sugars released from it. In such cooperative populations, evolution may favor non-cooperative, or “cheater” individuals that do not contribute to the public good (in this case, the products of sucrose break down), but still use that public good to grow at the expense of the individuals that do cooperate. Our study shows that a population of cooperators that is invaded by cheaters does not collapse as a result of cheater proliferation but can evolve to a viable equilibrium. However, the coexisting population is less resilient to perturbations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alvaro Sanchez
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- * E-mail: (AS); (JG)
| | - Jeff Gore
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
- * E-mail: (AS); (JG)
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25
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Hoffmann K, Foster KR, Korb J. Nest value mediates reproductive decision making within termite societies. Behav Ecol 2012. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ars103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
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26
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Korb J, Roux EA. Why join a neighbour: fitness consequences of colony fusions in termites. J Evol Biol 2012; 25:2161-70. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2012.02617.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2012] [Revised: 07/24/2012] [Accepted: 08/07/2012] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- J. Korb
- Behavioural Biology; University of Osnabrueck; Osnabrueck; Germany
| | - E. A. Roux
- Lehrstuhl für Biologie I; University of Regensburg; Regensburg; Germany
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27
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Celiker H, Gore J. Competition between species can stabilize public-goods cooperation within a species. Mol Syst Biol 2012; 8:621. [PMID: 23149686 PMCID: PMC3531910 DOI: 10.1038/msb.2012.54] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2012] [Accepted: 09/26/2012] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Competition between species is a major ecological force that can drive evolution. Here, we test the effect of this force on the evolution of cooperation within a species. We use sucrose metabolism of budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as a model cooperative system that is subject to social parasitism by cheater strategies. We find that when cocultured with a bacterial competitor, Escherichia coli, the frequency of cooperator phenotypes in yeast populations increases dramatically as compared with isolated yeast populations. Bacterial competition stabilizes cooperation within yeast by limiting the yeast population density and also by depleting the public goods produced by cooperating yeast cells. Both of these changes induced by bacterial competition increase the cooperator frequency because cooperator yeast cells have a small preferential access to the public goods they produce; this preferential access becomes more important when the public good is scarce. Our results indicate that a thorough understanding of species interactions is crucial for explaining the maintenance and evolution of cooperation in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hasan Celiker
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Jeff Gore
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
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Abstract
Microbial ecology is revealing the vast diversity of strains and species that coexist in many environments, ranging from free-living communities to the symbionts that compose the human microbiome. In parallel, there is growing evidence of the importance of cooperative phenotypes for the growth and behavior of microbial groups. Here we ask: How does the presence of multiple species affect the evolution of cooperative secretions? We use a computer simulation of spatially structured cellular groups that captures key features of their biology and physical environment. When nutrient competition is strong, we find that the addition of new species can inhibit cooperation by eradicating secreting strains before they can become established. When nutrients are abundant and many species mix in one environment, however, our model predicts that secretor strains of any one species will be surrounded by other species. This "social insulation" protects secretors from competition with nonsecretors of the same species and can improve the prospects of within-species cooperation. We also observe constraints on the evolution of mutualistic interactions among species, because it is difficult to find conditions that simultaneously favor both within- and among-species cooperation. Although relatively simple, our model reveals the richness of interactions between the ecology and social evolution of multispecies microbial groups, which can be critical for the evolution of cooperation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Mitri
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom
- Oxford Centre for Integrative Systems Biology, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3QU, United Kingdom; and
| | - João B. Xavier
- Program in Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065
| | - Kevin R. Foster
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom
- Oxford Centre for Integrative Systems Biology, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3QU, United Kingdom; and
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29
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