Population Biology Commons^™

Genomic Signatures Of Cooperation And Conflict In The Social Amoeba, Elizabeth A. Ostrowski, Yufeng Shen, Xiangjun Tian, Richard Sucgang, Huaiyang Jiang, Jiaxin Qu, Mariko Katoh-Kurasawa, Debra A. Brock, Christopher Dinh, Fremiet Lara-Garduno, Sandra L. Lee, Christie L. Kovar, Huyen H. Dinh, Viktoriya Korchina, Laronda Jackson, Shobha Patil, Yi Han, Lesley Chaboub, Gad Shaulsky, Donna M. Muzny, Kim C. Worley, Richard A. Gibbs, Stephen Richards, Adam Kuspa, Joan E. Strassmann, David C. Queller

Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations

• Molecular evolution analyses reveal the history of social conflict
• Genes that mediate social conflict show signatures of frequency-dependent selection
• Balanced polymorphisms suggest that cheating may be stable and endemic

Cooperative systems are susceptible to invasion by selfish individuals that profit from receiving the social benefits but fail to contribute. These so-called "cheaters" can have a fitness advantage in the laboratory, but it is unclear whether cheating provides an important selective advantage in nature. We used a population genomic approach to examine the history of genes involved in cheating behaviors in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, testing whether these genes experience …

Concurrent Coevolution Of Intra-Organismal Cheaters And Resisters, S R. Levin, D A. Brock, David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann

Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations

The evolution of multicellularity is a major transition that is not yet fully understood. Specifically, we do not know whether there are any mechanisms by which multicellularity can be maintained without a single-cell bottleneck or other relatedness-enhancing mechanisms. Under low relatedness, cheaters can evolve that benefit from the altruistic behaviour of others without themselves sacrificing. If these are obligate cheaters, incapable of cooperating, their spread can lead to the demise of multicellularity. One possibility, however, is that cooperators can evolve resistance to cheaters. We tested this idea in a facultatively multicellular social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum. This amoeba usually exists as …