Article
Ecology
Thomas Scheuerl, Veijo Kaitala
Summary: Changes in environmental conditions can lead to modifications in predator-prey communities, with dilution having significant impacts on both ecological and evolutionary dynamics by altering population densities. Experimental studies involving repeated dilution of microbial populations into fresh conditions provide mechanistic insights into fundamental processes, revealing that transfer volume and interval can affect ecological dynamics and evolutionary rates in predator-prey systems.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Biology
Vincent P. Scoleri, Janeane Ingram, Christopher N. Johnson, Menna E. Jones
Summary: This study investigates the impact of predation by Tasmanian devils on the abundance, habitat use, and temporal activity of the common brushtail possum. The introduction of devils to Maria Island in 2012 resulted in high mortality of possums in grasslands, but those with access to trees had a higher survival probability. The abundance of possums declined across the entire island, with disappearance from grasslands and decline in drier forests. However, wet forests, which provide better refuge from devils, maintained stable possum populations.-possums remained unchanged at a control site on the adjacent Tasmanian mainland.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Biology
Mohammad Salahshour
Summary: Salahshour's study demonstrates that heterogeneity can facilitate cooperation and coexistence of cooperators and defectors in different institutes by introducing participation costs as a factor to promote cooperation.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Limnology
Luis Alberto Villalba, Rajat Karnatak, Hans-Peter Grossart, Sabine Wollrab
Summary: Pelagic bacteria can adapt between free-living and particle-attached life modes. Increasing densities of particles can affect system stability and trophic transfer in aquatic food webs. A model study shows that coexistence between fixed and flexible bacteria is possible if the costs of adaptive habitat choice can be balanced by adaptation speed.
LIMNOLOGY AND OCEANOGRAPHY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Yann Bourgeois, Peter D. Fields, Gilberto Bento, Dieter Ebert
Summary: The link between long-term host-parasite coevolution and genetic diversity plays a key role in genetic epidemiology and the evolution of resistance. Evidence for long-term balancing selection at both phenotypic and genomic levels was found in a specific host-parasite system, indicating a direct link between the host's resistance to a pathogen and the diversity of its underlying genes.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Senjing Zheng, Feiying Lan, Marco Castellani
Summary: To reduce the computational complexity of training deep neural networks on large 3D scene datasets, a competitive learning scheme is proposed. This scheme combines the Adam optimizer with an evolutionary algorithm to select difficult training examples. Experimental results show that this scheme significantly reduces training time without compromising recognition accuracy.
APPLIED SOFT COMPUTING
(2023)
Article
Mathematics, Applied
Debabrata Das, Debprasad Pal, Tapan Kumar Kar, Kripasindhu Chaudhuri
Summary: This study demonstrates that balancing the harvest between prey and predators may be more beneficial for yield and ecosystem stability compared to selective harvesting. Different harvesting approaches have varying effects on resilience and yield in the system. A fair strategy of balanced harvest could potentially be the most favorable approach to safeguarding ecosystems.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Xiaohui Luo, Yueqin Hu
Summary: This study introduces the predator-prey model into psychology, using the relationship between food cravings and unhealthy snacking as an example. The results show that food cravings stimulate subsequent snacking behaviors, and lower self-efficacy makes individuals more likely to be driven by cravings.
CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler, Casey P. terHorst, Olivia U. Mason, Thomas Miller
Summary: The dispersal ability of predators can affect their spatial distribution, which in turn influences the diversity and composition of their prey. In this study, the microbial communities within pitcher plant leaves were used as a model system to investigate the relationship between predator dispersal ability and prey diversity. The results showed that the large ciliate Tetrahymena exhibited a clustered distribution, while the small flagellate Poterioochromonas was widely dispersed. The bacterial communities were influenced by the dispersal of Poterioochromonas and other bacterivores in the field.
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Maridel Fredericksen, Peter S. Fields, Louis Du Pasquier, Virginie S. Ricci, Dieter Ebert
Summary: Identifying genes that confer resistance in a coevolving host-parasite system is important for understanding evolution. By comparing resistant and susceptible hosts, analyzing gene expression data, and performing genetic crosses, this study identifies eight candidate genes that may confer resistance to parasites. This research expands our understanding of resistance loci and provides candidates to be tested in future experiments.
Article
Biology
Ashley N. Peterson, Matthew J. McHenry
Summary: This study examines the strategy of red lionfish in pursuing faster prey. The behavior of successfully capturing prey is defined as the "persistent-predation strategy", which includes pure pursuit, uninterrupted motion, and high success rate in strike.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Elizabeth J. Berens McCabe, Randall S. Wells, Christina N. Toms, Aaron A. Barleycorn, Krystan A. Wilkinson, Valeriy Palubok
Summary: Red tide blooms caused by Karenia brevis have significant ecological effects on the prey fish assemblage of common bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida. The impacts vary based on bloom intensity, season, and frequency, with distinct short-term shifts in prey structure during blooms. High K. brevis density is associated with changes in prey abundance and diversity, with recovery to pre-bloom levels typically occurring within one year.
FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE
(2021)
Review
Evolutionary Biology
Jonathan R. Goodman, Paul W. Ewald
Summary: The barrier theory is a universal evolutionary framework for understanding coevolutionary effects of conflicts of interest in natural and human systems. It suggests that exploiters capable of overcoming barriers and restraints will be favored in conflicts of interest. Barriers can temporarily halt coevolutionary arms races and occur across a spectrum of interactions in both natural and social systems.
EVOLUTIONARY APPLICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Krisztian Varga, Attila Kiss
Summary: Competition is a key driving factor in evolution, observed in both nature and simulations. The simulation explores competition between predators and preys, leading to the emergence of cooperation as predators share caught prey with nearby members. Sharing prey is found to be an effective way to facilitate cooperation among hunters.
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
(2021)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
G. M. Bucciarelli, Farid Alsalek, L. B. Kats, D. B. Green, H. B. Shaffer
Summary: Toxin evolution in animals is a complex and fascinating area of scientific research. Understanding the factors that influence toxin evolution, such as genetics and ecology, as well as antagonistic interactions and coevolutionary dynamics, is crucial. By studying toxic Pacific newts and their coevolution with snake predators, we can gain insights into the evolution and ecology of toxins.
ANNUAL REVIEW OF ANIMAL BIOSCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Nobuto Takeuchi, Namiko Mitarai, Kunihiko Kaneko
Summary: Living systems are hierarchically organized, and evolution can operate at both the level of collectives and within collectives. The balance between within- and among-collective evolution has significant effects on the fitness of these systems. The size of a collective and the mutation rate of components play important roles in determining this balance.
Article
Biology
Mikkel Skjoldan Svenningsen, Sine Lo Svenningsen, Michael Askvad Sorensen, Namiko Mitarai
Summary: The vast majority of bacterial population is killed by lethal concentration antibiotics, while a small subpopulation can survive for an extended period. Dynamics of long-term bacterial survival contain at least three time scales, enhancing prediction accuracy of population survival time compared with short-term behavior-based extrapolation.
LIFE SCIENCE ALLIANCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Gustav S. Halvorsen, Lone Simonsen, Kim Sneppen
Summary: This study models the impact of behavior changes on the transmission of Ebola virus and finds that behavior changes can explain why local outbreaks of Ebola recede before substantial international aid is mobilized during the 2014-2016 epidemic.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Stanley Brown, Namiko Mitarai, Kim Sneppen
Summary: Bacteriophage A is a temperate virus that infects Escherichia coli. The protection provided by A lysogen against A-sensitive bacteria is sensitive to the growth state of the mixed culture and is dependent on bacterial energy metabolism. However, a mutant of the A tail protein, AJ, is not affected by these factors and retains its protective function.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Yusuke Himeoka, Bertil Gummesson, Michael A. Sorensen, Sine Lo Svenningsen, Namiko Mitarai
Summary: The preservation of ribosomes plays a crucial role in bacterial survival and regrowth under long-term starvation conditions. Carbon and phosphorus starvation have different effects on the degradation of rRNA, bacterial survival, and lag time needed for regrowth.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Anastasios Marantos, Namiko Mitarai, Kim Sneppen
Summary: This study finds that phages and bacteria can coexist and maintain ecosystems with a high diversity of strains. The kill the winner model, where virulent phages prey on fast-growing bacteria and suppress the competitive exclusion of slower-growing bacteria, can explain this diversity. Additionally, the occasional elimination of even the fastest-growing bacteria strains by phage infections reinforces the kill the winner dynamics and supports diversity.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Infectious Diseases
Bjarke Frost Nielsen, Andreas Eilersen, Lone Simonsen, Kim Sneppen
Summary: The SARS-CoV-2 ancestral strain has led to significant superspreading events, with about 10% of infected individuals causing 80% of infections. Variants of the virus exhibit different levels of person-to-person variability in viral load, with the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant being more infectious but less prone to superspreading. Non-pharmaceutical interventions such as lockdowns, mask wearing, and social distancing have been employed to reduce transmission risk. A mathematical model shows that the effectiveness of these interventions in curbing the spread of variants depends on the imposed restrictions, with lockdowns favoring variants with lower levels of overdispersion. This suggests that overdispersion is an evolutionarily unstable trait, with more homogeneously spreading variants tending to dominate.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Namiko Mitarai, Anastasios Marantos, Kim Sneppen
Summary: Bacteriophages act as important regulators in microbial ecosystems, balancing bacterial populations and driving evolution through strong selection pressure. In this review, we discuss different factors that influence phage-bacteria interactions, such as structural, physical, and physiological constraints, and highlight their roles in promoting sustainable diversity in phage-bacteria systems.
CURRENT OPINION IN SYSTEMS BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Mireia Cordero, Namiko Mitarai, Liselotte Jauffred
Summary: Using confocal laser-scanning microscopy, researchers observed the emergence of satellite colonies around Escherichia coli colonies embedded in semi-dense hydrogel in vitro. Knock-out mutants were used to test the role of extra-cellular structures in controlling this morphology. The density of the extra-cellular matrix was identified as a key factor in satellite formation. Mathematical modeling suggests that this strategy allows bacterial communities to spread faster in different environments.
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Romain Fievet, Bettina Meyer, Jan O. Haerter
Summary: This study systematically increases the horizontal resolution in large-eddy simulations to evaluate the numerical convergence of cold pool effects. The analysis characterizes the tropospheric moistening rates, gust front vortical strength and propagation speed, and the amplitude of lobe-and-cleft instability. The understanding gained from this analysis may contribute to the development of robust subgrid models for cold pool dynamics.
JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN MODELING EARTH SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Andreas Eilersen, Bjarke Frost Nielsen, Kim Sneppen
Summary: The rapid succession of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 highlights the need to understand the factors driving pathogen evolution. Researchers have found a possible tradeoff between the rate of disease progression and its reproductive number. During the exponential growth phase of an epidemic, there is an optimal disease duration that balances the advantage of fast progression with causing many secondary infections. However, the context and mitigation strategies, such as quarantine measures, can influence the evolution of the pathogen.
PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Yusuke Himeoka, Namiko Mitarai
Summary: Physiological states of bacterial cells exhibit a wide spectrum of timescale, with dormant cells showing distinct metabolic characteristics such as slower growth rates and higher stress tolerance. A kinetic model of Escherichia coli central carbon metabolism was constructed to investigate the origins of this heterogeneity. Numerical studies revealed two qualitatively distinct relaxation dynamics depending on initial conditions, resembling either growing dynamics or dormant cell behavior. A minimal model further revealed that the depletion of energy due to a futile cycle and the coexistence of coupled and uncoupled reactions contribute to the emergence of distinct behaviors.
PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Physics, Fluids & Plasmas
Jakob Niehues, Gorm Gruner Jensen, Jan O. Haerter
Summary: This study investigates a simple model for local activation-inhibition processes and explores the spatiotemporal organization similar to a checkerboard pattern observed in atmospheric and biological systems. The model reveals different dynamics at low and high energy levels, as well as complex phase transitions at intermediate energy levels.