Stable public goods cooperation and dynamic social interactions in yeast

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology
• Microbial evolution
• Behavioral ecology

Background:

• Theoretical models predict complex dynamics in the evolution of cooperation.
• Empirical data on the evolutionary trajectories of cooperative traits are scarce.
• Public goods cooperation, where individuals incur costs for group benefit, is a key area of study.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the evolutionary dynamics of a public goods cooperative trait in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
• To determine if cooperation levels change over long-term selection experiments.
• To assess the impact of population structure and relatedness on cooperative evolution.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a long-term selection experiment in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast).
• Focused on invertase secretion as a model public goods cooperative trait.
• Monitored cooperation levels over hundreds of generations in viscous populations with high relatedness.

Main Results:

• Average investment in invertase secretion remained constant over hundreds of generations.
• Transient selection for both high and low cooperation levels occurred, creating dynamic social interactions.
• Observed variation in social strategies in natural yeast populations mirrored experimental findings.

Conclusions:

• Cooperative traits can exhibit long-term stability in investment despite fluctuating selection.
• High relatedness and population viscosity may stabilize public goods cooperation.
• Experimental findings are consistent with natural selective pressures on yeast cooperation.