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Related Experiment Video

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Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations

Published on: February 3, 2023

Evolutionary stability of developmental commitment.

Yuka Shirokawa¹

¹Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan.

|August 16, 2024

Summary

Social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum cells commit to group formation. This study shows evolutionary pressures prevent cells from abandoning the group, maintaining multicellularity through a specialized division of labor.

Keywords:

Cooperation Developmental stability Division of labor Multicellularity Physiological irreversibility Valley of fitness landscape

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Cellular biology
Ecology

Background:

Multicellularity requires resolving conflicts between individual cell reproduction and group interests.
The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum exhibits facultative sociality, aggregating under starvation to form fruiting bodies with spores and altruistic stalk cells.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the evolutionary stability of social commitment in Dictyostelium discoideum.
To test the hypothesis that traits enabling premature de-commitment from social commitment are selected against.

Main Methods:

Construction of an evolutionary model incorporating a division of labor.
Analysis of fitness landscapes to assess the invasion potential of de-committing mutants.

Main Results:

A fitness landscape valley was identified, preventing the invasion of de-committing mutants.
De-committed cells, due to reduced cohesiveness, adopt altruistic prestalk-like positions.

Conclusions:

The findings indicate the evolutionary stability of social commitment in Dictyostelium discoideum.
A division of labor, where less cohesive individuals act as altruists, is a general scheme that maintains multicellularity.