Social selection within aggregative multicellular development drives morphological evolution.

ABSTRACT: Aggregative multicellular development is a social process involving complex forms of cooperation among unicellular organisms. In some aggregative systems, development culminates in the construction of spore-packed fruiting bodies and often unfolds within genetically and behaviourally diverse conspecific cellular environments. Here, we use the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus to test whether the character of the cellular environment during aggregative development shapes its morphological evolution. We manipulated the cellular composition of Myxococcus development in an experiment in which evolving populations initiated from a single ancestor repeatedly co-developed with one of several non-evolving partners-a cooperator, three cheaters and three antagonists. Fruiting body morpholog

SUBMITTER: La Fortezza M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8611335 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature