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Updated: Mar 14, 2026
06:03
Procedure for Adaptive Laboratory Evolution of Microorganisms Using a Chemostat
Published on: September 20, 2016
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Evolutionary learning of adaptation to varying environments through a transgenerational feedback
BingKan Xue1, Stanislas Leibler2
1The Simons Center for Systems Biology, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540; bkxue@ias.edu livingmatter@rockefeller.edu.
Summary
Organisms can adapt to changing environments using bet hedging, creating population diversity. A transgenerational learning mechanism allows parents to pass down adaptive traits, optimizing offspring diversity for long-term environmental changes.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Genetics
- Ecology
Background:
- Organisms adapt to environmental unpredictability through phenotypic diversity, a strategy known as bet hedging.
- The optimal level of phenotypic diversity is linked to the statistical properties of environmental fluctuations across multiple generations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if organisms can utilize long-term environmental information to modulate their phenotypic diversity.
- To identify a potential mechanism for adaptive phenotypic plasticity over generational timescales.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical modeling of a general learning mechanism.
- Analysis of transgenerational feedback loops influencing offspring phenotype distribution.
Main Results:
- A simple, general learning mechanism enables organisms to adjust phenotypic diversity based on long-term environmental cues.
- Transgenerational feedback progressively reinforces parental phenotypes within offspring populations.
Conclusions:
- Organisms can adapt to long-term environmental variations through a learning process involving epigenetic inheritance.
- This mechanism provides a framework for understanding how populations maintain adaptive bet hedging strategies.
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