Evolution of bidirectional costly mutualism from byproduct consumption.

ABSTRACT: Mutualisms are essential for life, yet it is unclear how they arise. A two-stage process has been proposed for the evolution of mutualisms that involve exchanges of two costly resources. First, costly provisioning by one species may be selected for if that species gains a benefit from costless byproducts generated by a second species, and cooperators get disproportionate access to byproducts. Selection could then drive the second species to provide costly resources in return. Previously, a synthetic consortium evolved the first stage of this scenario: Salmonella enterica evolved costly production of methionine in exchange for costless carbon byproducts generated by an auxotrophic Escherichia coli Growth on agar plates localized the benefits of cooperation around methionine-se

SUBMITTER: Harcombe WR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6255176 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature