Browse
Submit Data
Databases
API
Help

Dataset Information

16 Views

0 Connections

0 Citations

0 Reanalyses

0 Downloads

Omics score: 0

Social selection within aggregative multicellular development drives morphological evolution.

ABSTRACT: Aggregative multicellular development is a social process involving complex forms of cooperation among unicellular organisms. In some aggregative systems, development culminates in the construction of spore-packed fruiting bodies and often unfolds within genetically and behaviourally diverse conspecific cellular environments. Here, we use the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus to test whether the character of the cellular environment during aggregative development shapes its morphological evolution. We manipulated the cellular composition of Myxococcus development in an experiment in which evolving populations initiated from a single ancestor repeatedly co-developed with one of several non-evolving partners-a cooperator, three cheaters and three antagonists. Fruiting body morphology was found to diversify not only as a function of partner genotype but more broadly as a function of partner social character, with antagonistic partners selecting for greater fruiting body formation than cheaters or the cooperator. Yet even small degrees of genetic divergence between distinct cheater partners sufficed to drive treatment-level morphological divergence. Co-developmental partners also determined the magnitude and dynamics of stochastic morphological diversification and subsequent convergence. In summary, we find that even just a few genetic differences affecting developmental and social features can greatly impact morphological evolution of multicellular bodies and experimentally demonstrate that microbial warfare can promote cooperation.

SUBMITTER: La Fortezza M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8611335 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Json Xml

Similar Datasets

Selection for social signalling drives the evolution of chameleon colour change.

Project description:Rapid colour change is a remarkable natural phenomenon that has evolved in several vertebrate and invertebrate lineages. The two principal explanations for the evolution of this adaptive strategy are (1) natural selection for crypsis (camouflage) against a range of different backgrounds and (2) selection for conspicuous social signals that maximise detectability to conspecifics, yet minimise exposure to predators because they are only briefly displayed. Here we show that evolutionary shifts in capacity for colour change in southern African dwarf chameleons (Bradypodion spp.) are associated with increasingly conspicuous signals used in male contests and courtship. To the chameleon visual system, species showing the most dramatic colour change display social signals that contrast most against the environmental background and amongst adjacent body regions. We found no evidence for the crypsis hypothesis, a finding reinforced by visual models of how both chameleons and their avian predators perceive chameleon colour variation. Instead, our results suggest that selection for conspicuous social signals drives the evolution of colour change in this system, supporting the view that transitory display traits should be under strong selection for signal detectability.

| S-EPMC2214820 | biostudies-literature

Natural selection drives Drosophila immune system evolution.

Project description:Evidence from disparate sources suggests that natural selection may often play a role in the evolution of host immune system proteins. However, there have been few attempts to make general population genetic inferences on the basis of analysis of several immune-system-related genes from a single species. Here we present DNA polymorphism and divergence data from 34 genes thought to function in the innate immune system of Drosophila simulans and compare these data to those from 28 nonimmunity genes sequenced from the same lines. Several statistics, including average K(A)/K(S) ratio, average silent heterozygosity, and average haplotype diversity, significantly differ between the immunity and nonimmunity genes, suggesting an important role for directional selection in immune system protein evolution. In contrast to data from mammalian immunoglobulins and other proteins, we find no strong evidence for the selective maintenance of protein diversity in Drosophila immune system proteins. This may be a consequence of Drosophila's generalized innate immune response.

| S-EPMC1462669 | biostudies-other

Trophic specialization drives morphological evolution in sea snakes.

Project description:Viviparous sea snakes are the most rapidly speciating reptiles known, yet the ecological factors underlying this radiation are poorly understood. Here, we reconstructed dated trees for 75% of sea snake species and quantified body shape (forebody relative to hindbody girth), maximum body length and trophic diversity to examine how dietary specialization has influenced morphological diversification in this rapid radiation. We show that sea snake body shape and size are strongly correlated with the proportion of burrowing prey in the diet. Specialist predators of burrowing eels have convergently evolved a 'microcephalic' morphotype with dramatically reduced forebody relative to hindbody girth and intermediate body length. By comparison, snakes that predominantly feed on burrowing gobies are generally short-bodied and small-headed, but there is no evidence of convergent evolution. The eel specialists also exhibit faster rates of size and shape evolution compared to all other sea snakes, including those that feed on gobies. Our results suggest that trophic specialization to particular burrowing prey (eels) has invoked strong selective pressures that manifest as predictable and rapid morphological changes. Further studies are needed to examine the genetic and developmental mechanisms underlying these dramatic morphological changes and assess their role in sea snake speciation.

| S-EPMC5882731 | biostudies-literature

Micro-mold design controls the 3D morphological evolution of self-assembling multicellular microtissues.

Project description:When seeded into nonadhesive micro-molds, cells self-assemble three-dimensional (3D) multicellular microtissues via the action of cytoskeletal-mediated contraction and cell-cell adhesion. The size and shape of the tissue is a function of the cell type and the size, shape, and obstacles of the micro-mold. In this article, we used human fibroblasts to investigate some of the elements of mold design and how they can be used to guide the morphological changes that occur as a 3D tissue self-organizes. In a loop-ended dogbone mold with two nonadhesive posts, fibroblasts formed a self-constrained tissue whose tension induced morphological changes that ultimately caused the tissue to thin and rupture. Increasing the width of the dogbone's connecting rod increased the stability, whereas increasing its length decreased the stability. Mapping the rupture points showed that the balance of cell volume between the toroid and connecting rod regions of the dogbone tissue controlled the point of rupture. When cells were treated with transforming growth factor-?1, dogbones ruptured sooner due to increased cell contraction. In mold designs to form tissues with more complex shapes such as three interconnected toroids or a honeycomb, obstacle design controlled tension and tissue morphology. When the vertical posts were changed to cones, they became tension modulators that dictated when and where tension was released in a large self-organizing tissue. By understanding how elements of mold design control morphology, we can produce better models to study organogenesis, examine 3D cell mechanics, and fabricate building parts for tissue engineering.

| S-EPMC3993026 | biostudies-literature

Positive selection drives faster-Z evolution in silkmoths.

Project description:Genes linked to X or Z chromosomes, which are hemizygous in the heterogametic sex, are predicted to evolve at different rates than those on autosomes. This "faster-X effect" can arise either as a consequence of hemizygosity, which leads to more efficient selection for recessive beneficial mutations in the heterogametic sex, or as a consequence of reduced effective population size of the hemizygous chromosome, which leads to increased fixation of weakly deleterious mutations due to genetic drift. Empirical results to date suggest that, while the overall pattern across taxa is complicated, systems with male heterogamy show a faster-X effect attributable to more efficient selection, whereas the faster-Z effect in female-heterogametic taxa is attributable to increased drift. To test the generality of the faster-Z pattern seen in birds and snakes, we sequenced the genome of the lepidopteran silkmoth Bombyx huttoni. We show that silkmoths experience faster-Z evolution, but unlike in birds and snakes, the faster-Z effect appears to be attributable to more efficient positive selection. These results suggest that female heterogamy alone is unlikely to explain the reduced efficacy of selection on vertebrate Z chromosomes. It is likely that many factors, including differences in overall effective population size, influence Z chromosome evolution.

| S-EPMC4122604 | biostudies-literature

How morphological development can guide evolution.

Project description:Organisms result from adaptive processes interacting across different time scales. One such interaction is that between development and evolution. Models have shown that development sweeps over several traits in a single agent, sometimes exposing promising static traits. Subsequent evolution can then canalize these rare traits. Thus, development can, under the right conditions, increase evolvability. Here, we report on a previously unknown phenomenon when embodied agents are allowed to develop and evolve: Evolution discovers body plans robust to control changes, these body plans become genetically assimilated, yet controllers for these agents are not assimilated. This allows evolution to continue climbing fitness gradients by tinkering with the developmental programs for controllers within these permissive body plans. This exposes a previously unknown detail about the Baldwin effect: instead of all useful traits becoming genetically assimilated, only traits that render the agent robust to changes in other traits become assimilated. We refer to this as differential canalization. This finding also has implications for the evolutionary design of artificial and embodied agents such as robots: robots robust to internal changes in their controllers may also be robust to external changes in their environment, such as transferal from simulation to reality or deployment in novel environments.

| S-EPMC6141532 | biostudies-literature

Natural selection drives rapid evolution of mouse embryonic heart enhancers.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Mouse E11.5 embryonic heart enhancers were found to exhibit exceptionally weak sequence conservation during vertebrate evolution compared to enhancers of other developing organs. However, it is unknown whether this phenomenon is due to elevated mutation rates, or is a consequence of natural selection. RESULTS: In this study, based on the aligned orthologous genomic sequences of mouse and other closely related mammals, the substitution rates of fourfold degenerate sites or intron sequences in neighboring genes were used as neutral references to normalize substitution rates of mouse enhancers. Subsequent comparisons indicated that heart enhancers' evolutionary rates were increased by natural selection. Correspondingly, the results of Fisher's exact tests to examine the differential enrichment of substitutions between enhancers and neutral sequences suggest that both relaxed purifying selection and positive selection caused the rapid evolution of heart enhancers. Analyses on recombination rates and substitution patterns indicated that GC-biased gene conversion does not contribute to evolutionary rate variations among enhancers. In general, pleiotropic enhancers and enhancers in proximity to weakly expressed genes, tend to evolve slowly. Although heart enhancers are less pleiotropic and are adjacent to highly expressed genes, these biases do not account for the rapid evolution observed. CONCLUSIONS: In combination, the results of the present study suggest that factors associated with functions or characteristics of the tissue may exert direct and profound effects on the intensity and direction of the natural selection applied to regulatory DNAs, such as enhancers.

| S-EPMC3521173 | biostudies-other

Selection for Mitochondrial Quality Drives Evolution of the Germline.

Project description:The origin of the germline-soma distinction is a fundamental unsolved question. Plants and basal metazoans do not have a germline but generate gametes from pluripotent stem cells in somatic tissues (somatic gametogenesis). In contrast, most bilaterians sequester a dedicated germline early in development. We develop an evolutionary model which shows that selection for mitochondrial quality drives germline evolution. In organisms with low mitochondrial replication error rates, segregation of mutations over multiple cell divisions generates variation, allowing selection to optimize gamete quality through somatic gametogenesis. Higher mutation rates promote early germline sequestration. We also consider how oogamy (a large female gamete packed with mitochondria) alters selection on the germline. Oogamy is beneficial as it reduces mitochondrial segregation in early development, improving adult fitness by restricting variation between tissues. But it also limits variation between early-sequestered oocytes, undermining gamete quality. Oocyte variation is restored through proliferation of germline cells, producing more germ cells than strictly needed, explaining the random culling (atresia) of precursor cells in bilaterians. Unlike other models of germline evolution, selection for mitochondrial quality can explain the stability of somatic gametogenesis in plants and basal metazoans, the evolution of oogamy in all plants and animals with tissue differentiation, and the mutational forces driving early germline sequestration in active bilaterians. The origins of predation in motile bilaterians in the Cambrian explosion is likely to have increased rates of tissue turnover and mitochondrial replication errors, in turn driving germline evolution and the emergence of complex developmental processes.

| S-EPMC5172535 | biostudies-literature

Cultural selection drives the evolution of human communication systems.

Project description:Human communication systems evolve culturally, but the evolutionary mechanisms that drive this evolution are not well understood. Against a baseline that communication variants spread in a population following neutral evolutionary dynamics (also known as drift models), we tested the role of two cultural selection models: coordination- and content-biased. We constructed a parametrized mixed probabilistic model of the spread of communicative variants in four 8-person laboratory micro-societies engaged in a simple communication game. We found that selectionist models, working in combination, explain the majority of the empirical data. The best-fitting parameter setting includes an egocentric bias and a content bias, suggesting that participants retained their own previously used communicative variants unless they encountered a superior (content-biased) variant, in which case it was adopted. This novel pattern of results suggests that (i) a theory of the cultural evolution of human communication systems must integrate selectionist models and (ii) human communication systems are functionally adaptive complex systems.

| S-EPMC4083785 | biostudies-literature

Sexual selection drives the evolution of male wing interference patterns.

Project description:The seemingly transparent wings of many insects have recently been found to display unexpected structural coloration. These structural colours (wing interference patterns: WIPs) may be involved in species recognition and mate choice, yet little is known about the evolutionary processes that shape them. Furthermore, to date investigations of WIPs have not fully considered how they are actually perceived by the viewers' colour vision. Here, we use multispectral digital imaging and a model of Drosophila vision to compare WIPs of male and female Drosophila simulans from replicate populations forced to evolve with or without sexual selection for 68 generations. We show that WIPs modelled in Drosophila vision evolve in response to sexual selection and provide evidence that WIPs correlate with male sexual attractiveness. These findings add a new element to the otherwise well-described Drosophila courtship display and confirm that wing colours evolve through sexual selection.

| S-EPMC6545089 | biostudies-literature

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

OmicsDI is an Elixir interoperability service. Learn more ›

Tweets

OmicsDI Databases

PRIDE
PeptideAtlas
MassIVE
JPOST Repository
Physiome Model Repository

EGA
EVA
ENA
LINCS
PAXDB
Cell Collective

MetaboLights
Metabolomics Workbench
MetabolomeExpress
GNPS
BioModels
FAIRDOMHub

ArrayExpress
dbGaP
ExpressionAtlas
GEO
NODE

Information

Databases
Help
API
Contact us
Code on GitHub
Terms of use
Submit Data