Tuning Evolution Towards Generalists Through Resonant Environmental Cycling

ORAL

Abstract

Natural environments can present diverse fitness pressures, but some genotypes remain fit across a wide range of challenges. Such 'generalist' genotypes can be hard to evolve because there may be entropic or absolute fitness costs relative to specialist genotypes. Here, we study the conditions under which time-dependent evolutionary protocols stabilize generalists even when static protocols fail. We find that cycling environments on timescales tuned to match fixation times can reliably evolve generalists when the landscape is too rugged, or deleterious selection too adverse, for static protocols to succeed. We discuss 'chirp' protocols that circumvent the need for protocol fine-tuning. Our work reveals regimes in which time-dependent 'seascapes’ can find and stabilize populations around genotypes that are fundamentally unstable in any static protocol.

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Presenters

  • Vedant Sachdeva

    Graduate Program in Biophysical Sciences, University of Chicago

Authors

  • Vedant Sachdeva

    Graduate Program in Biophysical Sciences, University of Chicago

  • Kabir Husain

    James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, James Franck Institute, University of Chicago

  • Shenshen Wang

    Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California State University, Los Angeles

  • Arvind Murugan

    James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, James Franck Institute, physics, University of Chicago, University of Chicago