Experimental evolution of bet hedging under manipulated environmental uncertainty in Neurospora crassa.

ABSTRACT: All organisms are faced with environmental uncertainty. Bet-hedging theory expects unpredictable selection to result in the evolution of traits that maximize the geometric-mean fitness even though such traits appear to be detrimental over the shorter term. Despite the centrality of fitness measures to evolutionary analysis, no direct test of the geometric-mean fitness principle exists. Here, we directly distinguish between predictions of competing fitness maximization principles by testing Cohen's 1966 classic bet-hedging model using the fungus Neurospora crassa. The simple prediction is that propagule dormancy will evolve in proportion to the frequency of 'bad' years, whereas the prediction of the alternative arithmetic-mean principle is the evolution of zero dormancy as long as the expec

SUBMITTER: Graham JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4071552 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature