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Meta-population structure and the evolutionary transition to multicellularity

View ORCID ProfileCaroline J. Rose, View ORCID ProfileKatrin Hammerschmidt, View ORCID ProfileYuiry Pichugin, View ORCID ProfilePaul B Rainey
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/407163
Caroline J. Rose
1New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
2Centre d’Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (CEFE), CNRS, Montpellier, France
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Katrin Hammerschmidt
1New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
3Institute of General Microbiology, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
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Yuiry Pichugin
1New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
4Department of Evolutionary Theory, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany
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Paul B Rainey
1New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
5Department of Microbial Population Biology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany
6Laboratoire de Génétique de l’Evolution, Chemie Biologie et Innovation, ESPCI Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Paris, France
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  • For correspondence: rainey@evolbio.mpg.de
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Abstract

The evolutionary transition to multicellularity has occurred on numerous occasions, but transitions to complex life forms are rare. While the reasons are unclear, relevant factors include the intensity of within-versus between-group selection that are likely to have shaped the course of life cycle evolution. A highly structured environment eliminates the possibility of mixing between evolving lineages, thus ensuring strong competition between groups. Less structure intensifies competition within groups, decreasing opportunity for group-level evolution. Here, using populations of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens, we report the results of experiments that explore the effect of lineage mixing on the evolution of nascent multicellular groups. Groups were propagated under regimes requiring reproduction via a life cycle replete with developmental and dispersal (propagule) phases, but in one treatment lineages never mixed, whereas in a second treatment, cells from different lineages experienced intense competition during the dispersal phase. The latter treatment favoured traits promoting cell growth at the expense of traits underlying group fitness – a finding that is supported by results from a mathematical model. Together our results show that the transition to multicellularity benefits from ecological conditions that maintain discreteness not just of the group (soma) phase, but also of the dispersal (germline) phase.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • * Cite as: Rose C, Hammerschmidt K, Pichugin Y and Rainey PB. Metapopulation structure and the evolutionary transition to multicellularity. bioRxiv 407163, ver. 5 peer-reviewed and recommended by PCI Evol Biol. doi: 10.1101/407163 (2020).

  • editorial and formatting changes for PCI Evolutionary Biology

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted April 30, 2020.
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Meta-population structure and the evolutionary transition to multicellularity
Caroline J. Rose, Katrin Hammerschmidt, Yuiry Pichugin, Paul B Rainey
bioRxiv 407163; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/407163
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Meta-population structure and the evolutionary transition to multicellularity
Caroline J. Rose, Katrin Hammerschmidt, Yuiry Pichugin, Paul B Rainey
bioRxiv 407163; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/407163

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