Pleiotropic constraints promote the evolution of cooperation in cellular groups.

ABSTRACT: The evolution of cooperation in cellular groups is threatened by lineages of cheaters that proliferate at the expense of the group. These cell lineages occur within microbial communities, and multicellular organisms in the form of tumours and cancer. In contrast to an earlier study, here we show how the evolution of pleiotropic genetic architectures-which link the expression of cooperative and private traits-can protect against cheater lineages and allow cooperation to evolve. We develop an age-structured model of cellular groups and show that cooperation breaks down more slowly within groups that tie expression to a private trait than in groups that do not. We then show that this results in group selection for pleiotropy, which strongly promotes cooperation by limiting the emergence of ch

SUBMITTER: Bentley MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9166655 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature