High Relatedness Is Necessary and Sufficient to Maintain Multicellularity in
            <i>Dictyostelium</i>

Kuzdzal‐Fick, Jennie J.; Fox, Sara; Strassmann, Joan E.; Queller, David C.

doi:10.1126/science.1213272

Cited by 113 publications

(184 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Kin selection theory predicts that cooperative behaviours will be selected if relatives preferentially interact with one another by kin recognition or high population viscosity [3][4][5]. High relatedness is key to kin selection and has been shown in social insects [6,7], birds [8,9], mammals [10,11] and microbes [12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structured growth and genetic drift raise relatedness in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum

et al. 2012

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One condition for the evolution of altruism is genetic relatedness between altruist and beneficiary, often achieved through active kin recognition. Here, we investigate the power of a passive process resulting from genetic drift during population growth in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. We put labelled and unlabelled cells of the same clone in the centre of a plate, and allowed them to proliferate outward. Zones formed by genetic drift owing to the small population of actively growing cells at the colony edge. We also found that single cells could form zones of high relatedness. Relatedness increased at a significantly higher rate when food was in short supply. This study shows that relatedness can be significantly elevated before the social stage without a small founding population size or recognition mechanism.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structured growth and genetic drift raise relatedness in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum

et al. 2012

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“…Perhaps the most similar study to those we propose was a recent study of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum [23]. These amoebas, when starved, aggregate and form fruiting bodies in which about 20 per cent of cells altruistically form a somatic stalk that enhances the dispersal of the remaining 80 per cent, which differentiate as reproductive spores [24].…”

Section: Past Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…The corresponding experiments with structured reproduction and/or structured growth (figure 1a-c) have not been done, but a separate mutation accumulation experiment showed that the mutation rate to these parasitic cheaters is low [23]. This allowed a calculation that single-cell bottlenecks would generally be sufficient to keep these cheaters from increasing significantly, not just for the plate-sized pseudo-organisms, but also for pseudo-organisms as large as a blue whale.…”

Section: Past Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experimental evolution of multicellularity using microbial pseudo-organisms

Queller

Strassmann

2013

Biol. Lett.

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In a major evolutionary transition to a new level of organization, internal conflicts must be controlled before the transition can truly be successful. One such transition is that from single cells to multicellularity. Conflicts among cells in multicellular organisms can be greatly reduced if they consist of genetically identical clones. However, mutations to cheaters that experience one round of within-individual selection could still be a problem, particularly for certain life cycles. We propose an experimental evolution method to investigate this issue, using micro-organisms to construct multicellular pseudo-organisms, which can be evolved under different artificial life cycles. These experiments can be used to test the importance of various life cycle features in maintaining cooperation. They include structured reproduction, in which small propagule size reduces within-individual genetic variation. They also include structured growth, which increases local relatedness within individual bodies. Our method provides a novel way to test how different life cycles favour cooperation, even for life cycles that do not exist.

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“…These non-clonal groups have evolved only relatively limited division of labour, and never complex multicellular organisms (Fisher et al 2013). Numerous experimental studies have shown that this is because in non-clonal groups non-cooperative 'cheats' can spread, limiting the extent of cooperation (Griffin et al 2004;Diggle et al 2007;Kuzdzal-Fick et al 2011;Rumbaugh et al 2012;Pollitt et al 2014;Popat et al 2015;Inglis et al 2017).…”

Section: What Conditions Drive Major Transitions?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Darwin's aliens

Levin

Scott

Cooper³

et al. 2017

International Journal of Astrobiology

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Making predictions about aliens is not an easy task. Most previous work has focused on extrapolating from empirical observations and mechanistic understanding of physics, chemistry and biology. Another approach is to utilize theory to make predictions that are not tied to details of Earth. Here we show how evolutionary theory can be used to make predictions about aliens. We argue that aliens will undergo natural selection -something that should not be taken for granted but that rests on firm theoretical grounds. Given aliens undergo natural selection we can say something about their evolution. In particular, we can say something about how complexity will arise in space. Complexity has increased on the Earth as a result of a handful of events, known as the major transitions in individuality. Major transitions occur when groups of individuals come together to form a new higher level of the individual, such as when single-celled organisms evolved into multicellular organisms. Both theory and empirical data suggest that extreme conditions are required for major transitions to occur. We suggest that major transitions are likely to be the route to complexity on other planets, and that we should expect them to have been favoured by similarly restrictive conditions. Thus, we can make specific predictions about the biological makeup of complex aliens.

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High Relatedness Is Necessary and Sufficient to Maintain Multicellularity in Dictyostelium

Cited by 113 publications

References 29 publications

Structured growth and genetic drift raise relatedness in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum

Structured growth and genetic drift raise relatedness in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum

Experimental evolution of multicellularity using microbial pseudo-organisms

Darwin's aliens

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