Deriving general conditions and mechanisms for division of labor using the cell-based simulator gro

Abstract

ABSTRACTDivision of Labor can occur as a consequence of a major evolutionary transition such as multicellularity but is also found in societies of similar individuals like microbes. It has been defined as a process that occurs when cooperating individuals specialize to carry out specific tasks in a distributed manner. This paper analyzes the conditions for division of labor to emerge as a beneficial evolutionary solution and proposes two novel mechanisms for this process to emerge as a consequence of cell communication in an isogenic group of cells. The study is conducted by means of the cell-based model gro that simulates the growth and interaction of cells in a two-dimensional bacterial colony. When the labor is social, like the production of a molecule that is publicly shared, simulation results indicate that division of labor provides higher fitness than individual labor if the benefits of specialization are accelerating. Two genetic networks that generate consensual and reversible specialization are presented and characterized. In the proposed mechanisms, cells self-organize through the exchange of certain molecules and coordinate behaviors at the local level without the requirements of any fitness benefits. In addition, the proposed regulatory mechanisms are able to create de novo patterns unprecedented to this date that can scale with size.