Experimental evolution of conflict mediation between genomes.

ABSTRACT: Transitions to new levels of biological complexity often require cooperation among component individuals, but individual selection among those components may favor a selfishness that thwarts the evolution of cooperation. Biological systems with elements of cooperation and conflict are especially challenging to understand because the very direction of evolution is indeterminate and cannot be predicted without knowing which types of selfish mutations and interactions can arise. Here, we investigated the evolution of two bacteriophages (f1 and IKe) experimentally forced to obey a life cycle with elements of cooperation and conflict, whose outcome could have ranged from extinction of the population (due to selection of selfish elements) to extreme cooperation. Our results show the de novo evol

SUBMITTER: Sachs JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC544279 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature