Abstract
The Red Queen Hypothesis proposes that perpetual co-evolution among organisms can result from purely biotic drivers. After more than four decades, there is no satisfactory understanding as to which mechanisms trigger Red Queen dynamics or their implications for ecosystem features such as biodiversity. One reason for such a knowledge gap is that typical models are complicated theories where limit cycles represent an idealized Red Queen, and therefore cannot be used to devise experimental setups. Here, we bridge this gap by introducing a simple model for microbial systems able to show Red Queen dynamics. We explore diverse biotic sources that can drive the emergence of the Red Queen and that have the potential to be found in nature or to be replicated in the laboratory. Our model enables an analytical understanding of how Red Queen dynamics emerge in our setup, and the translation of model terms and phenomenology into general underlying mechanisms. We observe, for example, that in our system the Red Queen offers opportunities for the increase of biodiversity by facilitating challenging conditions for intraspecific dominance, whereas stasis tends to homogenize the system. Our results can be used to design and engineer experimental microbial systems showing Red Queen dynamics.
Highlights
In its original formulation, the Red Queen Hypothesis proposes that co-evolution among co-existing species can be perpetual, with no need for abiotic factors to sustain it[1]
Theories typically seek to find the conditions for evolutionary limit cycles as opposed to evolutionarily stable strategies (ESS), which are identified with stasis[8]
V, we explored the areas of the space for which an ESS is reached and those in which Red Queen (RQ) dynamics emerge (Fig. S3, right, Fig. S4, left, and Fig. 1, upper right)
Summary
In its original formulation, the Red Queen Hypothesis proposes that co-evolution among co-existing species can be perpetual, with no need for abiotic factors to sustain it[1]. The reason is that, in most cases, oscillations in the adaptive trait are linked to population-density oscillations[9,10] In such cases, the co-evolving species alternate dominance unceasingly, i.e. one species rises and forces a simultaneous decline of the rest of the species’ densities; the RQ is identified as periodic changes in the relative frequency of the species involved, facilitating a winner-less scenario in which all species coexist. Intraspecific competition for resources drives interspecific ecological interactions among generic bacterial strains which, in turn, influence the evolutionary target imposed by intraspecific competition This feedback loop triggers a perpetual change of the fitness landscape that gives rise to eco-evolutionary RQ dynamics. Our model allows for a theoretical understanding of key aspects of the RQ, providing information about the triggering mechanisms and systems susceptible to show evolutionary oscillations in the lab and the real world
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