The evolution of division of labour in structured and unstructured groups.

ABSTRACT: Recent theory has overturned the assumption that accelerating returns from individual specialisation are required to favour the evolution of division of labour. Yanni et al., 2020, showed that topologically constrained groups, where cells cooperate with only direct neighbours such as for filaments or branching growths, can evolve a reproductive division of labour even with diminishing returns from individual specialisation. We develop a conceptual framework and specific models to investigate the factors that can favour the initial evolution of reproductive division of labour. We find that selection for division of labour in topologically constrained groups: (1) is not a single mechanism to favour division of labour-depending upon details of the group structure, division of labour can be fa

SUBMITTER: Cooper GA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8789276 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature