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Experimental evolution reveals that high relatedness protects multicellular cooperation from cheaters
Eric Bastiaans1, Alfons J M Debets1, Duur K Aanen1
1Department of Plant Sciences, Laboratory of Genetics, Wageningen University, Wageningen 6708 PB, The Netherlands.
Nature Communications
|May 4, 2016
Summary
High genetic relatedness is crucial for multicellular cooperation. In the fungus Neurospora crassa, low relatedness allowed cheating mutants to decrease cooperation and spore yield threefold.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Multicellularity
- Social evolution
Background:
- Multicellular organisms face the risk of
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of genetic relatedness in maintaining multicellular cooperation.
- To directly compare cooperation levels under high- and low-relatedness conditions.
Main Methods:
- Evolving two variants of the fungus Neurospora crassa under differing relatedness levels (chimera formation vs. no chimera formation).
- Quantifying multicellular cooperation and spore yield in high- and low-relatedness experimental lines.
Main Results:
- Multicellular cooperation remained high in high-relatedness lines.
- Cooperation significantly decreased in all low-relatedness lines, leading to a threefold reduction in spore yield.
- Cheating mutants with reduced somatic investment but increased competitive success when fused with non-cheaters were identified as the cause.
Conclusions:
- High genetic relatedness is essential for sustaining multicellular cooperation.
- Development from a single-celled zygote resets relatedness, but this mechanism is insufficient to prevent cheating under low relatedness.
- The findings highlight the importance of relatedness in preventing the evolution of social cheats in multicellular organisms.
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