Red Queen Theory Research Articles

Age-dependent extinction and the neutral theory of biodiversity.

Red Queen (RQ) theory states that adaptation does not protect species from extinction because their competitors are continually adapting alongside them. RQ was founded on the apparent independence of extinction risk and fossil taxon age, but analytical developments have since demonstrated that age-dependent extinction is widespread, usually most intense among young species. Here, we develop ecological neutral theory as a general framework for modeling fossil species survivorship under incomplete sampling. We show that it provides an excellent fit to a high-resolution dataset of species durations for Paleozoic zooplankton and more broadly can account for age-dependent extinction seen throughout the fossil record. Unlike widely used alternative models, the neutral model has parameters with biological meaning, thereby generating testable hypotheses on changes in ancient ecosystems. The success of this approach suggests reinterpretations of mass extinctions and of scaling in eco-evolutionary systems. Intense extinction among young species does not necessarily refute RQ or require a special explanation but can instead be parsimoniously explained by neutral dynamics operating across species regardless of age.

High speciation rate of niche specialists in hot springs

Ecological and evolutionary processes simultaneously regulate microbial diversity, but the evolutionary processes and their driving forces remain largely unexplored. Here we investigated the ecological and evolutionary characteristics of microbiota in hot springs spanning a broad temperature range (54.8–80 °C) by sequencing the 16S rRNA genes. Our results demonstrated that niche specialists and niche generalists are embedded in a complex interaction of ecological and evolutionary dynamics. On the thermal tolerance niche axis, thermal (T) sensitive (at a specific temperature) versus T-resistant (at least in five temperatures) species were characterized by different niche breadth, community abundance and dispersal potential, consequently differing in potential evolutionary trajectory. The niche-specialized T-sensitive species experienced strong temperature barriers, leading to completely species shift and high fitness but low abundant communities at each temperature (“home niche”), and such trade-offs thus reinforced peak performance, as evidenced by high speciation across temperatures and increasing diversification potential with temperature. In contrast, T-resistant species are advantageous of niche expansion but with poor local performance, as shown by wide niche breadth with high extinction, indicating these niche generalists are “jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none”. Despite of such differences, the T-sensitive and T-resistant species are evolutionarily interacted. Specifically, the continuous transition from T-sensitive to T-resistant species insured the exclusion probability of T-resistant species at a relatively constant level across temperatures. The co-evolution and co-adaptation of T-sensitive and T-resistant species were in line with the red queen theory. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that high speciation of niche specialists could alleviate the environmental-filtering-induced negative effect on diversity.

Sourcing strategies to keep up with competition: the case of SAP

This paper applies the Red Queen theory to explain how organizations utilize various sourcing arrangements in order to compete in an evolutionary arms race where only the strongest competitors will survive. The case study incorporates competition, and views sourcing strategies as a means to improve the firm’s viability to survive competition in the marketplace. The study begins by positioning the Red Queen theory within the sourcing literature. It subsequently applies the framework to a case study of SAP AG to illustrate how sourcing strategies have changed over time in response to the logic of competition. The case study reveals that (a) organizations are adaptive systems and capable of learning to make strategic changes pertaining to sourcing arrangements; (b) organizations select the terms on which they want to compete by developing certain capabilities within the firm; (c) organizations are reflexive and over time develop competitive hysteresis which allows them to become stronger competitors. In the case of SAP AG, various sourcing arrangements were selected over its 40-year history to respond to technological and market changes.

Red Queen Effect in German Bank Industry: Implication of Banking Digitalization for Open Innovation Dynamics

This study analyzed the firm’s actual case in an environment where the financial industry’s paradigm changes due to technological development. It focused on Deutsche Bank’s competitive action at the heart of the digitalizing European banking industry. This study presents the competitive dynamics among firms and the effects of such dynamics on firm performance. Based on the competitive dynamics between Deutsche Bank and other banks competing in the European banking industry, the Red Queen theory was applied. This study has shown that Deutsche Bank’s innovative actions in the digitalizing European banking industry are necessary and are a factor that can lead to successful firm performance in a hyper-competitive environment. Firms need to develop a capability to quickly capture the opportunities to innovate and take advantage of them to stay ahead of their competitors.

Transmissible cancers and the evolution of sex under the Red Queen hypothesis.

The predominance of sexual reproduction in eukaryotes remains paradoxical in evolutionary theory. Of the hypotheses proposed to resolve this paradox, the 'Red Queen hypothesis' emphasises the potential of antagonistic interactions to cause fluctuating selection, which favours the evolution and maintenance of sex. Whereas empirical and theoretical developments have focused on host-parasite interactions, the premises of the Red Queen theory apply equally well to any type of antagonistic interactions. Recently, it has been suggested that early multicellular organisms with basic anticancer defences were presumably plagued by antagonistic interactions with transmissible cancers and that this could have played a pivotal role in the evolution of sex. Here, we dissect this argument using a population genetic model. One fundamental aspect distinguishing transmissible cancers from other parasites is the continual production of cancerous cell lines from hosts' own tissues. We show that this influx dampens fluctuating selection and therefore makes the evolution of sex more difficult than in standard Red Queen models. Although coevolutionary cycling can remain sufficient to select for sex under some parameter regions of our model, we show that the size of those regions shrinks once we account for epidemiological constraints. Altogether, our results suggest that horizontal transmission of cancerous cells is unlikely to cause fluctuating selection favouring sexual reproduction. Nonetheless, we confirm that vertical transmission of cancerous cells can promote the evolution of sex through a separate mechanism, known as similarity selection, that does not depend on coevolutionary fluctuations.

Adaptation of New Organizations to Legitimacy Shocks: Postbellum Firearms Firms in the U.S. South, 1866–1914

In the wake of exogenous institutional change, organizational populations often experience a legitimacy shock. As a new institutional logic becomes dominant, old symbols and practices are delegitimated and new ones legitimated. Old symbols and practices persist into the postshock period, however, forming an ecology of diverse cohorts and audience schemas, some divergent and others convergent with the new institutional logic. Because new organizations look to their rivals for knowledge of how to cope, I examine how the shifting alignment of a rival cohort to changing audience schemas influences a new organization’s own alignment and, thus, mortality. I propose that density at founding of divergent preshock organizational cohorts early in the postshock period reduces a new organization’s mortality due to an initial endowment effect and then becomes more mortality-increasing over time as maladaptive imprints take over. Density at founding of convergent postshock organizational cohorts has a U-shaped effect on mortality—similar to that caused by a legitimacy vacuum—but this effect emerges after a delay as legitimation processes begin to dominate delegitimation processes. Also, following Red Queen theory, I argue that competitive experience with divergent organizational cohorts increases mortality, but competitive experience with convergent organizational cohorts decreases mortality. To test these arguments, I use the institutional shock of the American Civil War—during which the firearms industry of the U.S. South underwent a period of government-led command-and-control centralization—as a natural experiment. The findings are consistent with the main arguments, though the overall postshock effect of density at founding appears to be dominated by early stage endowment effects, contrary to assumptions.

How counterfactuals of Red-Queen theory shed light on science and its historiography

A historical episode of evolutionary theory, which has lead to the Red Queen theory of the evolutionary maintenance of sex, includes two striking contingencies. These are used to explore alternative what-if scenarios, in order to test some common opinions about such counterfactuals. This sheds new light on the nature of science and its historiography. One counterfactual leads to an unexpected convergence of its result to that of the actual science but, nevertheless, differs in its causal structure. The other diverges towards an incompatible alternative, but this requires further contingent choices that also diverge from actual science.The convergence in the first counterfactual is due to a horizontal transfer of knowledge. Similar transfers of knowledge are typical for innovations of actual science. This suggests that contingent choices can merge as well as fork research traditions both in actual research and counterfactual history. Neither the paths of the actual history of science nor those of its counterfactual alternatives will form a tree of exclusively diverging bifurcations, but a network instead. Convergencies in counterfactuals may, therefore, be due to the web-structure of science as much as to the aims of the historians in question. Furthermore, the difference in causal structure between the actual science and its convergent counterfactual might become diagnostic for external factors rather than internal aims forcing a historian towards convergence.

Hill-Robertson interference maintained by Red Queen dynamics favours the evolution of sex.

Although it is well established theoretically that selective interference among mutations (Hill-Robertson interference) favours meiotic recombination, genomewide mean rates of mutation and strengths of selection appear too low to support this as the mechanism favouring recombination in nature. A possible solution to this discrepancy between theory and observation is that selection is at least intermittently very strong due to the antagonistic coevolution between a host and its parasites. The Red Queen theory posits that such coevolution generates fitness epistasis among loci, which generates negative linkage disequilibrium among beneficial mutations, which in turn favours recombination. This theory has received only limited support. However, Red Queen dynamics without epistasis may provide the ecological conditions that maintain strong and frequent selective interference in finite populations that indirectly selects for recombination. This hypothesis is developed here through the simulation of Red Queen dynamics. This approach required the development of a method to calculate the exact frequencies of multilocus haplotypes after recombination. Simulations show that recombination is favoured by the moderately weak selection of many loci involved in the interaction between a host and its parasites, which results in substitution rates that are compatible with empirical estimates. The model also reproduces the previously reported rapid increase in the rate of outcrossing in Caenorhabditis elegans coevolving with a bacterial pathogen.

Evidence of epistasis provides further support to the Red Queen theory of host-parasite coevolution

A recommendation of: Metzger CMJA, Luijckx P, Bento G, Mariadassou M, Ebert D. The Red Queen lives: epistasis between linked resistance loci 10.1111/evo.12854

The Red Queen lives: Epistasis between linked resistance loci.

A popular theory explaining the maintenance of genetic recombination (sex) is the Red Queen Theory. This theory revolves around the idea that time-lagged negative frequency-dependent selection by parasites favors rare host genotypes generated through recombination. Although the Red Queen has been studied for decades, one of its key assumptions has remained unsupported. The signature host-parasite specificity underlying the Red Queen, where infection depends on a match between host and parasite genotypes, relies on epistasis between linked resistance loci for which no empirical evidence exists. We performed 13 genetic crosses and tested over 7000 Daphnia magna genotypes for resistance to two strains of the bacterial pathogen Pasteuria ramosa. Results reveal the presence of strong epistasis between three closely linked resistance loci. One locus masks the expression of the other two, while these two interact to produce a single resistance phenotype. Changing a single allele on one of these interacting loci can reverse resistance against the tested parasites. Such a genetic mechanism is consistent with host and parasite specificity assumed by the Red Queen Theory. These results thus provide evidence for a fundamental assumption of this theory and provide a genetic basis for understanding the Red Queen dynamics in the Daphnia-Pasteuria system.

Red Queen Competitive Imitation in the UK Mobile Phone Industry

The paper uses Red Queen theory to examine imitative competition. We conceptualize imitative actions by focal firms and their rivals along two dimensions: imitation scope which describes the extent to which firms imitate their rivals’ technologies, and imitation speed, the pace at which they imitate technologies that have been adopted by their rivals. We argue that focal firm imitation scope and imitation speed drive performance, and focal firm performance drives imitation scope and speed decisions by rivals, which in turn influences imitation scope and speed of the focal firm. We also argue that the impact of this self-reinforcing Red Queen process on firms’ actions and performance, is contingent on levels of product technology heterogeneity - defined as the extent to which the industry has multiple designs and has high product variety. We derive hypotheses about the impact of imitation scope and speed on focal firm performance and rivals’ response, as well as hypotheses on the moderating impact of product technology heterogeneity. We use data from the UK mobile phone industry from 1997 to 2008 to test these hypotheses.

Competitive Moves Over Time: The Case of SAP

Abstract This paper applies the Red Queen theory to explain how organizations utilize various sourcing arrangements in order to compete in an evolutionary arms race where only the strongest competitors will survive. This case study incorporates competition and views sourcing strategies as a means to improve its viability to survive in the marketplace. The study begins with a review of sourcing literature to position the Red Queen theory within the sourcing literature. It subsequently applies the framework to a case study of SAP AG to illustrate how sourcing strategies changed over time in response to the logic of competition. The case study reveals that (a) organizations are adaptive systems and capable of organizational learning to make strategic changes pertaining to sourcing arrangements; (b) organizations select the terms in which they want to compete by developing certain capabilities within the firm; (c) organizations are reflexive and over time develop competitive hysteresis which allows them to become stronger competitors. In the case of SAP AG, various sourcing arrangements were selected over its 40-year history to respond to technological and market changes.

A Matching-Allele Model Explains Host Resistance to Parasites

The maintenance of genetic variation and sex despite its costs has long puzzled biologists. A popular idea, the Red Queen Theory, is that under rapid antagonistic coevolution between hosts and their parasites, the formation of new rare host genotypes through sex can be advantageous as it creates host genotypes to which the prevailing parasite is not adapted. For host-parasite coevolution to lead to an ongoing advantage for rare genotypes, parasites should infect specific host genotypes and hosts should resist specific parasite genotypes. The most prominent genetics capturing such specificity are matching-allele models (MAMs), which have the key feature that resistance for two parasite genotypes can reverse by switching one allele at one host locus. Despite the lack of empirical support, MAMs have played a central role in the theoretical development of antagonistic coevolution, local adaptation, speciation, and sexual selection. Using genetic crosses, we show that resistance of the crustacean Daphnia magna against the parasitic bacterium Pasteuria ramosa follows a MAM. Simulation results show that the observed genetics can explain the maintenance of genetic variation and contribute to the maintenance of sex in the facultatively sexual host as predicted by the Red Queen Theory.

A New Interpretative Paradigm for Conformational Protein Diseases

Conformational Protein Diseases (CPDs) comprise over forty clinically and pathologically diverse disorders in which specific altered proteins accumulate in cells or tissues of the body. The most studied are Alzheimerβ's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, prion diseases, inclusion body myopathy, and the systemic amyloidoses. They are characterised by three dimensional conformational alterations, which are often rich in β- structure. Proteins in this non-native conformation are highly stable, resistant to degradation, and have an enhanced tendency to aggregate with like protein molecules. The misfolded proteins can impart their anomalous properties to soluble, monomeric proteins with the same amino acid sequence by a process that has been likened to seeded crystallization. However, these potentially pathogenic proteins also have important physiological actions, which have not completely characterized. This opens up the question of what process transforms physiological actions into pathological actions and most intriguing, is why potentially dangerous proteins have been maintained during evolution and are present from yeasts to humans. In the present paper, we introduce the concept of mis-exaptation and of mis-tinkering since they may help in clarifying some of the double edged sword aspects of these proteins. Against this background an original interpretative paradigm for CPDs will be given in the frame of the previously proposed Red Queen Theory of Aging.

The maintenance of sex: host–parasite coevolution with density‐dependent virulence

Why don't asexual females replace sexual females in most natural populations of eukaryotes? One promising explanation is that parasites could counter the reproductive advantages of asexual reproduction by exerting frequency-dependent selection against common clones (the Red Queen hypothesis). One apparent limitation of the Red Queen theory, however, is that parasites would seem to be required by theory to be highly virulent. In the present study, I present a population-dynamic view of competition between sexual females and asexual females that interact with co-evolving parasites. The results show that asexual populations have higher carrying capacities, and more unstable population dynamics, than sexual populations. The results also suggest that the spread of a clone into a sexual population could increase the effective parasite virulence as population density increases. This combination of parasite-mediated frequency-dependent selection, and density-dependent virulence, could lead to the coexistence of sexual and asexual reproductive strategies and the long-term persistence of sex.

THE COST OF BEING COMMON: EVIDENCE FROM NATURALDAPHNIAPOPULATIONS

The Red Queen coevolutionary hypothesis predicts that parasites drive oscillations in host genotype frequencies due to frequency-dependent selection where common hosts are at disadvantage. However, examples of this phenomenon in natural populations are scarce. To examine if the Red Queen theory operates in the wild, we studied the genetic structure of populations of the crustacean waterflea (Daphnia), in relation to their infection levels, for which we collected multiple samples from a variety of lakes. The most common clone in a given population was often underinfected. This advantage, however, did not remain stable over time. Instead, the most common clone decreased in frequency over subsequent generations, indicating that parasites can track common clones. Such decreases were not observed in uninfected populations. Moreover, host clonal evenness was higher across the set of infected lakes compared to uninfected lakes; suggesting that any common clone is selected against when parasites are present. These results strongly suggest that Red Queen dynamics do operate in the wild.

Common key-signals in learning and neurodegeneration: focus on excito-amino acids, β-amyloid peptides and α-synuclein

In this paper a hypothesis that some special signals ("key-signals" excito-amino acids, beta-amyloid peptides and alpha-synuclein) are not only involved in information handling by the neuronal circuits, but also trigger out substantial structural and/or functional changes in the Central Nervous System (CNS) is introduced. This forces the neuronal circuits to move from one stable state towards a new state, but in doing so these signals became potentially dangerous. Several mechanisms are put in action to protect neurons and glial cells from these potentially harmful signals. However, in agreement with the Red Queen Theory of Ageing (Agnati et al. in Acta Physiol Scand 145:301-309, 1992), it is proposed that during ageing these neuroprotective processes become less effective while, in the meantime, a shortage of brain plasticity occurs together with an increased need of plasticity for repairing the wear and tear of the CNS. The paper presents findings supporting the concept that such key-signals in instances such as ageing may favour neurodegenerative processes in an attempt of maximizing neuronal plasticity.

The Red King effect: when the slowest runner wins the coevolutionary race.

Mutualisms provide benefits to those who participate in them. As a mutualism evolves, how will these benefits come to be allocated among the participants? We approach this question by using evolutionary game theory and explore the ways in which the coevolutionary process determines the allocation of benefits in mutualistic interactions. Motivated by the Red Queen theory, which states that coevolutionary processes favor rapid rates of evolution, we pay particular attention to the role of evolutionary rates in the establishment of mutualism and the partitioning of benefits among mutualist partners. We find that, contrary to the Red Queen, in mutualism evolution the slowly evolving species is likely to gain a disproportionate share of the benefits. Moreover, population structure serves to magnify the advantage to the slower species.

Red Queen Dynamics of Protein Translation

We explore adaptive theories for the diversity of translational binding based on the genetic code viewed as a primitive mechanism of resistance. Modifying the set of codons bound by tRNA anticodon molecules or changing the specificity of binding, reduces the replication rate of translational parasites such as viruses. Increased translational efficiency of the parasite requires a high degree of specificity of host tRNAs for the parasite codons. This suggests that the genetic code might serve as the first line of defense against infection. We construct a red queen theory for translational diversity: a theory in which host-translational strategies— as defined by the degree of redundancy (a single anticodon binding many codons for a single amino acid) or degeneracy (many anticodons binding many codons for a single amino acid)—are constantly shifting through time to evade parasitism but where neither parasite nor host gain a systematic advantage.

Clone mixtures and a pacemaker: new facets of Red-Queen theory and ecology.

Host-parasite antagonistic interaction has been proposed as a potential agent to promote genetic polymorphism and to favour sex against asex, despite its twofold cost in reproduction. However, the host-parasite gene-for-gene dynamics often produce unstable cycles that tend to destroy genetic diversity. Here, we examine such diversity destroying coevolutionary dynamics of host and parasite, which is coupled through local or global migration, or both, between demes in a metapopulation structure. We show that, with global migration in the island model, peculiar out-of-phase islands spontaneously arise in the cluster of islands converging to a global synchrony. Such asynchrony induced by the 'pacemaker islands' serves to restore genetic variation. With increasing fraction of local migration, spots of asynchrony are converted into loci or foci of spiral and target patterns, whose rotating arms then cover the majority of demes. A multi-locus analogue of the model reproduces the same tendency toward asynchrony, and the condition arises for an advantage of asexual clones over their sexual counterpart when enough genetic diversity is maintained through metapopulation storage-migration serves as a cheap alternative to sex.