Ecological Advantages and Evolutionary Limitations of Aggregative Multicellular Development.
Jennifer T Pentz1, Pedro Márquez-Zacarías2, G Ozan Bozdag3
1Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, Umeå 90187, Sweden; School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
Current Biology : CB
|September 5, 2020
Summary
Clonal yeast, despite being individually weaker, exploit aggregative yeast by hitching rides on flocs. This social cheating provides a competitive advantage, demonstrating a conflict in multicellular development strategies.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Developmental Biology
- Microbial Ecology
Background:
- Multicellularity evolves through aggregation or clonal development.
- Evolutionary theory predicts trade-offs between these strategies.
- Experimental tests in genetically identical organisms are lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To experimentally test evolutionary predictions of developmental modes in yeast.
- To investigate fitness trade-offs between aggregative and clonal development.
- To examine social exploitation in chimeric multicellular collectives.
Main Methods:
- Engineered baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) for clonal (snowflake) and aggregative (floc) development.
- Assessed fitness in fluctuating environments with growth and sedimentation selection.
- Competed clonal and aggregative yeast directly.
- Utilized mathematical modeling to analyze developmental cheating.
Main Results:
- Independently, aggregative yeast showed superior growth and sedimentation fitness.
- In direct competition, clonal yeast displaced aggregative yeast.
- Clonal yeast exploited aggregative yeast by incorporating into flocs, enhancing chimeric cluster sedimentation.
- Mathematical models indicated difficulty in circumventing this social exploitation.
Conclusions:
- Non-specific cellular binding in aggregative development offers ecological advantages but enables social exploitation.
- Developmental cheating can provide a significant fitness advantage in mixed populations.
- The study highlights inherent conflicts in the evolution of multicellularity.
Keywords:
Saccharomycescomplexityconflictcooperationdevelopmentlife cyclesmajor transitionsmulticellularitysocial evolutionyeastMore Related Videos
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