Multilevel selection favors fragmentation modes that maintain cooperative interactions in multispecies communities.

ABSTRACT: Reproduction is one of the requirements for evolution and a defining feature of life. Yet, across the tree of life, organisms reproduce in many different ways. Groups of cells (e.g., multicellular organisms, colonial microbes, or multispecies biofilms) divide by releasing propagules that can be single-celled or multicellular. What conditions determine the number and size of reproductive propagules? In multicellular organisms, existing theory suggests that single-cell propagules prevent the accumulation of deleterious mutations (e.g., cheaters). However, groups of cells, such as biofilms, sometimes contain multiple metabolically interdependent species. This creates a reproductive dilemma: small daughter groups, which prevent the accumulation of cheaters, are also unlikely to contain the spe

SUBMITTER: Henriques GJB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8460008 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature