How Signaling Games Explain Mimicry at Many Levels: From Viral Epidemiology to Human Sociology

Abstract

Mimicry is exhibited in multiple scales, ranging from molecular, to organismal, and then to human society. ‘Batesian’ type mimicry entails a conflict of interest between sender and receiver, reflected in a deceptive mimic signal. ‘Mullerian’ type mimicry occurs when there is perfect common interest between sender and receiver, manifested by an honest co-mimic signal. Using a signaling games approach, simulations show that invasion by Batesian mimics will make Mullerian mimicry unstable, in a coevolutionary chase. We use these results to better understand the deceptive strategies of SARS-CoV-2 and their key role in the COVID-19 pandemic. At the biomolecular level, we explain how cellularization promotes Mullerian molecular mimicry, and discourages Batesian molecular mimicry. A wide range of processes analogous to cellularization are presented; these might represent a manner of reducing oscillatory instabilities. Lastly, we identify examples of mimicry in human society, that might be addressed using a signaling game approach.

Do place cells dream of deceptive moves in a signaling game?

“…Batesian mimicry in snakes (Casey et al, 2020) illustrates a biological game theoretic example in which conventionally informative signals, meant to signal “possession of dangerous venom,” can be co-opted by snakes that possess the conventionally informative color patterns without the metabolically costly venom that reinforces the convention. The mimics are “deceptive” signaling agents that obtain utility at the expense of the reliable convention.…”

Host Manipulation Mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2

“…These are indicated by the existence of several human viruses which target neuropilins using molecular mimicry of the CendR motif (Table 2), and may be attributed to the simple nature of the CendR motif, which makes it easy to mimic. A detailed signaling games definition of Müllerian molecular mimicry rings and Batesian molecular mimics is described in (Massey and Mishra 2018;Casey et al 2021). The PDB identifier for the neuropilin-1 structure is 4GZ9, and the amino acid recognition motifs for each ligand were obtained from the following references: Vesicular Epithelial Growth Factor A165 (Vander Kooi et al 2007), Platelet Derived Growth Factor (Siegfried et al 2003), Transforming Growth Factor 1β (Dubois 1995) b1/b2 domain may have utility in the pharmaceutical treatment of COVID-19, by blocking the deceptive spike protein binding to neuropilin-1 (Daly et al 2020).…”

“…Evolutionary game theory can be used to better understand commonalities in the different manifestations of parasitism, and contribute to surveillance (Snijder et al 2020), glycosylation of its surface spike protein to shield epitopes from the immune system (Grant et al 2020), and a polybasic cleavage site (PCS) located in its spike protein, which mimics an endogenous protease cleavage site (Anand et al 2020). Recently, deceptive molecular mimicry was formally described in a signaling games context, using SARS-CoV-2 as an example (Casey et al 2021).…”