Joint Evolution of Kin Recognition and Cooperation in Spatially Structured Rhizobium Populations
Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: In the face of costs, cooperative interactions maintained over evolutionary time present a central question in biology. What forces maintain this cooperation? Two potential ways to explain this problem are spatially structured environments (kin selection) and kin-recognition (directed benefits). In a two-locus population genetic model, we investigated the relative roles of spatial structure and kin recognition in the maintenance of cooperation among rhizobia within the rhizobia-legume mutualism. In the case where the cooperative and kin recognition loci are independently inherited, spatial structure alone maintains cooperation, while kin recognition decreases the equilibrium frequency of cooperators. In the case of co-inheritance, spatial structure remains a stronger force, but kin recognition can transiently increase the frequency of cooperators. Our results suggest that spatial structure can be a dominant force in maintaining cooperation in rhizobium populations, providing a mechanism for maintaining the mutualistic nodulation trait. Further, our model generates unique and testable predictions that could be evaluated empirically within the legume-rhizobium mutualism.
Source: PLoS ONE
Authors: Peter C. Zee, James D. Bever
Institutions: Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,382
Awards: Ecological dynamics of facultative bacterial pathogens, Genetics Cellular and Molecular Sciences Training Grant, G4833159413, Preferential Allocation of Photosynthate toward Better Mutualists, Spatial Structure, and the Maintenance of the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Mutualism, G6684797646, OPUS: Microbial Dynamics and the Structure of Plant Communities, G7422698259
OpenAlex ID: W2081086588