Coevolutionary transitions from antagonism to mutualism explained by the Co-Opted Antagonist Hypothesis.

ABSTRACT: There is now good evidence that many mutualisms evolved from antagonism; why or how, however, remains unclear. We advance the Co-Opted Antagonist (COA) Hypothesis as a general mechanism explaining evolutionary transitions from antagonism to mutualism. COA involves an eco-coevolutionary process whereby natural selection favors co-option of an antagonist to perform a beneficial function and the interacting species coevolve a suite of phenotypic traits that drive the interaction from antagonism to mutualism. To evaluate the COA hypothesis, we present a generalized eco-coevolutionary framework of evolutionary transitions from antagonism to mutualism and develop a data-based, fully ecologically-parameterized model of a small community in which a lepidopteran insect pollinates some of its larval

SUBMITTER: Johnson CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8129128 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature