Experimental evolution of bet hedging

Beaumont, Hubertus J. E.; Gallie, Jenna; Kost, Christian; Ferguson, Gayle C.; Rainey, Paul B.

doi:10.1038/nature08504

Cited by 581 publications

(576 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…For instance, in bacterial persistence, populations are bimodal, maintaining a small subpopulation of dormant cells in addition to normally growing cells (11). This type of bet-hedging has been evolved in Pseudomonas fluorescens in the presence of alternating stresses (12,13). 2) An alternative approach is to generate a continuum of stress-resistance levels within a population, which we refer to as a ''unimodal distribution''.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenotypic Diversity Using Bimodal and Unimodal Expression of Stress Response Proteins

Garcia‐Bernardo

Dunlop

2016

Biophysical Journal

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Populations of cells need to express proteins to survive the sudden appearance of stressors. However, these mechanisms may be taxing. Populations can introduce diversity, allowing individual cells to stochastically switch between fast-growing and stress-tolerant states. One way to achieve this is to use genetic networks coupled with noise to generate bimodal distributions with two distinct subpopulations, each adapted to a stress condition. Another survival strategy is to rely on random fluctuations in gene expression to produce continuous, unimodal distributions of the stress response protein. To quantify the environmental conditions where bimodal versus unimodal expression is beneficial, we used a differential evolution algorithm to evolve optimal distributions of stress response proteins given environments with sudden fluctuations between low and high stress. We found that bimodality evolved for a large range of environmental conditions. However, we asked whether these findings were an artifact of considering two well-defined stress environments (low and high stress). As noise in the environment increases, or when there is an intermediate environment (medium stress), the benefits of bimodality decrease. Our results indicate that under realistic conditions, a continuum of resistance phenotypes generated through a unimodal distribution is sufficient to ensure survival without a high cost to the population.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenotypic Diversity Using Bimodal and Unimodal Expression of Stress Response Proteins

Garcia‐Bernardo

Dunlop

2016

Biophysical Journal

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“…Although our knowledge of the prevalence of bet‐hedging strategies is improving (Beaumont, Gallie, Kost, Ferguson, & Rainey, 2009; Graham, Smith, & Simons, 2014; Simons, 2011), our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the generation of diversification and of the joint expression of these two modes of response is underdeveloped.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aberrant clones: Birth order generates life history diversity in Greater Duckweed, Spirodela polyrhiza

Mejbel

Simons

2018

Ecology and Evolution

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Environmental unpredictability is known to result in the evolution of bet‐hedging traits. Variable dormancy enhances survival through harsh conditions, and is widely cited as a diversification bet‐hedging trait. The floating aquatic plant, Spirodela polyrhiza (Greater Duckweed), provides an opportunity to study diversification because although partially reliable seasonal cues exist, its growing season is subject to an unpredictable and literally “hard” termination when the surface water freezes, and overwinter survival depends on a switch from production of normal daughter fronds to production of dense, sinking “turions” prior to freeze‐over. The problem for S. polyrhiza is that diversified dormancy behavior must be generated among clonally produced, genetically identical offspring. Variation in phenology has been observed in the field, but its sources are unknown. Here, we investigate sources of phenological variation in turion production, and test the hypothesis that diversification in turion phenology is generated within genetic lineages through effects of parental birth order. As expected, phenotypic plasticity to temperature is expressed along a thermal gradient; more interestingly, parental birth order was found to have a significant and strong effect on turion phenology: Turions are produced earlier by late birth‐order parents. These results hold regardless of whether turion phenology is measured as first turion birth order, time to first turion, or turion frequency. This study addresses a question of current interest on potential mechanisms generating diversification, and suggests that consistent phenotypic differences across birth orders generate life history variation.

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“…In contrast, neutral evolution associated with synonymous mutations was less frequent, indicating that selection for adaptation is the dominant evolutionary dynamic under these conditions. Similarly, after alternating cycles of static and aerated growth, Pseudomonas aeruginosa evolved adaptability as manifested by an ability to reversibly generate variants that were particularly suitable for each of the two environments [29]. Laboratory experiments often select for the so-called mutators, in which the general frequency of genetic variants is elevated [28,30].…”

Section: Darwinian Selection During Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights from genomic comparisons of genetically monomorphic bacterial pathogens

Achtman

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

116

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Some of the most deadly bacterial diseases, including leprosy, anthrax and plague, are caused by bacterial lineages with extremely low levels of genetic diversity, the so-called 'genetically monomorphic bacteria'. It has only become possible to analyse the population genetics of such bacteria since the recent advent of high-throughput comparative genomics. The genomes of genetically monomorphic lineages contain very few polymorphic sites, which often reflect unambiguous clonal genealogies. Some genetically monomorphic lineages have evolved in the last decades, e.g. antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, whereas others have evolved over several millennia, e.g. the cause of plague, Yersinia pestis. Based on recent results, it is now possible to reconstruct the sources and the history of pandemic waves of plague by a combined analysis of phylogeographic signals in Y. pestis plus polymorphisms found in ancient DNA. Different from historical accounts based exclusively on human disease, Y. pestis evolved in China, or the vicinity, and has spread globally on multiple occasions. These routes of transmission can be reconstructed from the genealogy, most precisely for the most recent pandemic that was spread from Hong Kong in multiple independent waves in 1894.

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Experimental evolution of bet hedging

Cited by 581 publications

References 30 publications

Phenotypic Diversity Using Bimodal and Unimodal Expression of Stress Response Proteins

Phenotypic Diversity Using Bimodal and Unimodal Expression of Stress Response Proteins

Aberrant clones: Birth order generates life history diversity in Greater Duckweed, Spirodela polyrhiza

Insights from genomic comparisons of genetically monomorphic bacterial pathogens

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