Ecological diversification in rapidly evolving populations.

ABSTRACT: Microbial populations have an enormous capacity for rapid evolutionary change. Some mutations increase the fitness of their lineage and compete with each other in a process known as clonal interference. Other mutations can evade competitive exclusion by diversifying into distinct ecological niches. Both processes are frequently observed in natural and experimental settings, yet little is known about how they interact in the parameter regimes most relevant for microbes. Here we address this gap by analyzing the dynamics of ecological diversification in a simple class of resource competition models, where individuals acquire mutations that alter their resource uptake rates. We focus on large adapting populations, where mutations occur so frequently that their ecological and evolutionary time

SUBMITTER: Wong DPGH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12458155 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature