Tradeoff breaking as a model of evolutionary transitions in individuality and limits of the fitness-decoupling metaphor.

ABSTRACT: Evolutionary transitions in individuality (ETIs) involve the formation of Darwinian collectives from Darwinian particles. The transition from cells to multicellular life is a prime example. During an ETI, collectives become units of selection in their own right. However, the underlying processes are poorly understood. One observation used to identify the completion of an ETI is an increase in collective-level performance accompanied by a decrease in particle-level performance, for example measured by growth rate. This seemingly counterintuitive dynamic has been referred to as fitness decoupling and has been used to interpret both models and experimental data. Extending and unifying results from the literature, we show that fitness of particles and collectives can never decouple because cal

SUBMITTER: Bourrat P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9470156 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature