Back to Search Start Over

Host-parasite coevolution promotes innovation through deformations in fitness landscapes

Authors :
Animesh Gupta
Luis Zaman
Hannah M Strobel
Jenna Gallie
Alita R Burmeister
Benjamin Kerr
Einat S Tamar
Roy Kishony
Justin R Meyer
Source :
eLife, Vol 11 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd, 2022.

Abstract

During the struggle for survival, populations occasionally evolve new functions that give them access to untapped ecological opportunities. Theory suggests that coevolution between species can promote the evolution of such innovations by deforming fitness landscapes in ways that open new adaptive pathways. We directly tested this idea by using high-throughput gene editing-phenotyping technology (MAGE-Seq) to measure the fitness landscape of a virus, bacteriophage λ, as it coevolved with its host, the bacterium Escherichia coli. An analysis of the empirical fitness landscape revealed mutation-by-mutation-by-host-genotype interactions that demonstrate coevolution modified the contours of λ’s landscape. Computer simulations of λ’s evolution on a static versus shifting fitness landscape showed that the changes in contours increased λ’s chances of evolving the ability to use a new host receptor. By coupling sequencing and pairwise competition experiments, we demonstrated that the first mutation λ evolved en route to the innovation would only evolve in the presence of the ancestral host, whereas later steps in λ’s evolution required the shift to a resistant host. When time-shift replays of the coevolution experiment were run where host evolution was artificially accelerated, λ did not innovate to use the new receptor. This study provides direct evidence for the role of coevolution in driving evolutionary novelty and provides a quantitative framework for predicting evolution in coevolving ecological communities.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2050084X
Volume :
11
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
eLife
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.bfb9acffd65442fe84849825aeedb6a4
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.76162