The evolution of kin inclusivity levels

Johnson, Anya Elaine; Goldsby, Heather J.; Goings, Sherri; Ofria, Charles

doi:10.1145/2576768.2598283

Cited by 3 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…This result shows that programmed cell death can evolve due only to kin selection if there is an accurate and discriminatory form of kin recognition, though the exact degree of discrimination for an optimal benefit from programmed cell death clearly will rely on factors such as average mutation rate, as we have found previously (Johnson et al, 2014). Note that the value of performing programmed cell death at kin inclusivity level zero is very low, as a result of a lack of variation in the population.…”

Section: How Does Kin Inclusivity Level Affect Programmed Cell Death?supporting

confidence: 61%

“…Our previous work has suggested that the level of kin discrimination can greatly alter the benefits of programmed cell death (Johnson et al, 2014). If too many unicells are considered kin (i.e., kin inclusivity level is high and unicells with many genetic differences are considered kin), cheating unicells that do not possess the programmed cell death gene may gain the benefit, decreasing the relative inclusive fitness for that gene.…”

Section: Kin Inclusivity Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In indirectly beneficial programmed cell death, when an organism dies the surrounding nonkin are set at a competitive disadvantage, such as colicin production in Escherichia coli, which kills any organisms without the resistance gene after the focal organism has burst (Chao & Levin, 1981). Previously, we have examined the effect of population size and mutation rate on the most extreme form of indirect benefit: killing competing organisms (Johnson, Goldsby, Goings, & Ofria, 2014). While there has been ample work using agent-based models to study the evolution of altruism (Gotts, Polhill, & Law, 2003), there are fewer studies using this method to explore programmed cell death specifically.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Suicidal selection: Programmed cell death can evolve in unicellular organisms due solely to kin selection

Vostinar

Goldsby

Ofria

2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Unicellular organisms can engage in a process by which a cell purposefully destroys itself, termed programmed cell death (PCD). While it is clear that the death of specific cells within a multicellular organism could increase inclusive fitness (e.g., during development), the origin of PCD in unicellular organisms is less obvious. Kin selection has been shown to help maintain instances of PCD in existing populations of unicellular organisms; however, competing hypotheses exist about whether additional factors are necessary to explain its origin. Those factors could include an environmental shift that causes latent PCD to be expressed, PCD hitchhiking on a large beneficial mutation, and PCD being simply a common pathology. Here, we present results using an artificial life model to demonstrate that kin selection can, in fact, be sufficient to give rise to PCD in unicellular organisms. Furthermore, when benefits to kin are direct—that is, resources provided to nearby kin—PCD is more beneficial than when benefits are indirect—that is, nonkin are injured, thus increasing the relative amount of resources for kin. Finally, when considering how strict organisms are in determining kin or nonkin (in terms of mutations), direct benefits are viable in a narrower range than indirect benefits. Open Research Badges This article has been awarded Open Data and Open Materials Badges. All materials and data are publicly accessible via the Open Science Framework at https://github.com/anyaevostinar/SuicidalAltruismDissertation/tree/master/LongTerm.

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Section: How Does Kin Inclusivity Level Affect Programmed Cell Death?supporting

confidence: 61%

Section: Kin Inclusivity Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Suicidal selection: Programmed cell death can evolve in unicellular organisms due solely to kin selection

Vostinar

Goldsby

Ofria

2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Our understanding of kin inclusivity (Johnson et al. ), host–parasite coevolution (Zaman et al. ), diversity in response to resource availability (Walker and Ofria ), recapitulation theory (Clune et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The evolution of phenomena such as quorum sensing (Beckman et al 2012), division of labor , ecological networks (Fortuna et al 2013), multicellularity (Hessel and Goings 2013), prey intelligence , and antipredator strategies (Fish et al 2014) have all been studied in Avida. Our understanding of kin inclusivity (Johnson et al 2014), host-parasite coevolution (Zaman et al 2011), diversity in response to resource availability (Walker and Ofria 2012), recapitulation theory (Clune et al 2012), temporal polyethism (Goldsby et al 2012), and ecological and mutation-order speciation (Anderson and Harmon 2014) has been improved through studies in Avida. Specifically relevant to our study, Avida has lead to new insights into the study of the evolution of communication networks , the evolution and maintenance of sexual reproduction (Misevic et al 2010), the role of deleterious mutations in sexual populations (Covert et al 2013), and hypotheses in runaway sexual selection and good genes (Chandler et al 2013).…”

Section: Avidamentioning

confidence: 99%

Context matters: sexual signaling loss in digital organisms

Weigel

Testa

Peer

et al. 2015

Ecology and Evolution

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Sexual signals are important in attracting and choosing mates; however, these signals and their associated preferences are often costly and frequently lost. Despite the prevalence of signaling system loss in many taxa, the factors leading to signal loss remain poorly understood. Here, we test the hypothesis that complexity in signal loss scenarios is due to the context-dependent nature of the many factors affecting signal loss itself. Using the Avida digital life platform, we evolved 50 replicates of ∼250 lineages, each with a unique combination of parameters, including whether signaling is obligate or facultative; genetic linkage between signaling and receiving genes; population size; and strength of preference for signals. Each of these factors ostensibly plays a crucial role in signal loss, but was found to do so only under specific conditions. Under obligate signaling, genetic linkage, but not population size, influenced signal loss; under facultative signaling, genetic linkage does not have significant influence. Somewhat surprisingly, only a total loss of preference in the obligate signaling populations led to total signal loss, indicating that even a modest amount of preference is enough to maintain signaling systems. Strength of preference proved to be the strongest single force preventing signal loss, as it consistently overcame the potential effects of drift within our study. Our findings suggest that signaling loss is often dependent on not just preference for signals, population size, and genetic linkage, but also whether signals are required to initiate mating. These data provide an understanding of the factors (and their interactions) that may facilitate the maintenance of sexual signals.

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The Effect of Conflicting Pressures on the Evolution of Division of Labor

et al. 2014

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Within nature, many groups exhibit division of labor. Individuals in these groups are under seemingly antagonistic pressures to perform the task most directly beneficial to themselves and to potentially perform a less desirable task to ensure the success of the group. Performing experiments to study how these pressures interact in an evolutionary context is challenging with organic systems because of long generation times and difficulties related to group propagation and fine-grained control of within-group and between-group pressures. Here, we use groups of digital organisms (i.e., self-replicating computer programs) to explore how populations respond to antagonistic multilevel selection pressures. Specifically, we impose a within-group pressure to perform a highly-rewarded role and a between-group pressure to perform a diverse suite of roles. Thus, individuals specializing on highly-rewarded roles will have a within-group advantage, but groups of such specialists have a between-group disadvantage. We find that digital groups could evolve to be either single-lineage or multi-lineage, depending on experimental parameters. These group compositions are reminiscent of different kinds of major evolutionary transitions that occur within nature, where either relatives divide labor (fraternal transitions) or multiple different organisms coordinate activities to form a higher-level individual (egalitarian transitions). Regardless of group composition, organisms embraced phenotypic plasticity as a means for genetically similar individuals to perform different roles. Additionally, in multi-lineage groups, organisms from lineages performing highly-rewarded roles also employed reproductive restraint to ensure successful coexistence with organisms from other lineages.

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The evolution of kin inclusivity levels

Cited by 3 publications

References 23 publications

Suicidal selection: Programmed cell death can evolve in unicellular organisms due solely to kin selection

Suicidal selection: Programmed cell death can evolve in unicellular organisms due solely to kin selection

Context matters: sexual signaling loss in digital organisms

The Effect of Conflicting Pressures on the Evolution of Division of Labor

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