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Schlagwörter:
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Zusammenfassung:
Multicellular organisms depend on developmental programs to coordinate growth and differentiation from single cells, but
the origins of development are unclear. A possible starting point is stochastic phenotypic variation generated by molecular
noise. Given appropriate environmental conditions, noise-driven differentiation could conceivably evolve so as to come
under regulatory control; however, abiotic conditions are likely to be restrictive. Drawing from an experimental system, we
present a model in which environmental fluctuations are coupled to population growth. We show that this coupling
generates stable selection for a single optimal strategy that is largely insensitive to environmental conditions, including the
number of competitors, carrying capacity of the environment, difference in growth rates among phenotypic variants, and
population density. We argue that this optimal strategy establishes stabilizing conditions likely to improve the quality and
reliability of information experienced by evolving organisms, thus increasing opportunity for the evolutionary emergence of
developmental programs.
