Reduced social function in experimentally evolved Dictyostelium discoideum implies selection for social conflict in nature

Author:

Larsen Tyler J.1ORCID,Jahan Israt1,Brock Debra A.1ORCID,Strassmann Joan E.1ORCID,Queller David C.1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

Abstract

Many microbes interact with one another, but the difficulty of directly observing these interactions in nature makes interpreting their adaptive value complicated. The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum forms aggregates wherein some cells are sacrificed for the benefit of others. Within chimaeric aggregates containing multiple unrelated lineages, cheaters can gain an advantage by undercontributing, but the extent to which wild D. discoideum has adapted to cheat is not fully clear. In this study, we experimentally evolved D. discoideum in an environment where there were no selective pressures to cheat or resist cheating in chimaeras. Dictyostelium discoideum lines grown in this environment evolved reduced competitiveness within chimaeric aggregates and reduced ability to migrate during the slug stage. By contrast, we did not observe a reduction in cell number, a trait for which selection was not relaxed. The observed loss of traits that our laboratory conditions had made irrelevant suggests that these traits were adaptations driven and maintained by selective pressures D. discoideum faces in its natural environment. Our results suggest that D. discoideum faces social conflict in nature, and illustrate a general approach that could be applied to searching for social or non-social adaptations in other microbes.

Funder

National Science Foundation

Publisher

The Royal Society

Subject

General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Environmental Science,General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine

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