The role of plasticity and stochasticity in coexistence.

Species coexistence in ecological communities is a central feature of biodiversity. Different concepts, i.e.

Spatial and temporal heterogeneity alter the cost of plasticity in Pristionchus pacificus.

Phenotypic plasticity, the ability of a single genotype to produce distinct phenotypes under different environmental conditions, has become a leading concept in ecology and evolutionary biology, with the most extreme examples being the formation of alternative phenotypes (polyphenisms). However, several aspects associated with phenotypic plasticity remain controversial, such as the existence of associated costs. While already predicted by some of the pioneers of plasticity research, i.

Genetic drift promotes and recombination hinders speciation on holey fitness landscapes.

Dobzhansky and Muller proposed a general mechanism through which microevolution, the substitution of alleles within populations, can cause the evolution of reproductive isolation between populations and, therefore, macroevolution. As allopatric populations diverge, many combinations of alleles differing between them have not been tested by natural selection and may thus be incompatible. Such genetic incompatibilities often cause low fitness in hybrids between species.

The role of microRNAs in neurobiology and pathophysiology of the hippocampus.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding and well-conserved RNAs that are linked to many aspects of development and disorders. MicroRNAs control the expression of genes related to different biological processes and play a prominent role in the harmonious expression of many genes. During neural development of the central nervous system, miRNAs are regulated in time and space.

Experimental and theoretical support for costs of plasticity and phenotype in a nematode cannibalistic trait.

Developmental plasticity is the ability of a genotype to express multiple phenotypes under different environmental conditions and has been shown to facilitate the evolution of novel traits. However, while the associated cost of plasticity, i.e.

Population-level heterogeneity as a reflection of mixed strategy: A computational perspective on the Crabtree effect.

Is population-level heterogeneity a reflection of distinct subpopulations, exhibiting different metabolic functions, or dynamic metabolism of individuals within the population? This fascinating question has remained a subject of great interest in studying metabolic specialization in microorganisms. The Crabtree effect - i.e.

Sex or cannibalism: Polyphenism and kin recognition control social action strategies in nematodes.

Resource polyphenisms, where single genotypes produce alternative feeding strategies in response to changing environments, are thought to be facilitators of evolutionary novelty. However, understanding the interplay between environment, morphology, and behavior and its significance is complex. We explore a radiation of nematodes with discrete polyphenic mouth forms and associated microbivorous versus cannibalistic traits.

Competitive exclusion during co-infection as a strategy to prevent the spread of a virus: A computational perspective.

Inspired by the competition exclusion principle, this work aims at providing a computational framework to explore the theoretical feasibility of viral co-infection as a possible strategy to reduce the spread of a fatal strain in a population. We propose a stochastic-based model-called Co-Wish-to understand how competition between two viruses over a shared niche can affect the spread of each virus in infected tissue. To demonstrate the co-infection of two viruses, we first simulate the characteristics of two virus growth processes separately.

Noise-driven cell differentiation and the emergence of spatiotemporal patterns.

The emergence of phenotypic diversity in a population of cells and their arrangement in space and time is one of the most fascinating features of living systems. In fact, understanding multicellularity is unthinkable without explaining the proximate and the ultimate causes of cell differentiation in time and space. Simpler forms of cell differentiation can be found in unicellular organisms, such as bacterial biofilm, where reversible cell differentiation results in phenotypically diverse populations.

From indication to decision: A hierarchical approach to model the chemotactic behavior of Escherichia coli.

Reducing the complex behavior of living entities to its underlying physical and chemical processes is a formidable task in biology. Complex behaviors can be characterized as decision making: the ability to process the incoming information via an intracellular network and act upon this information to choose appropriate strategies. Motility is one such behavior that has been the focus many modeling efforts in the past.

Spiraling Complexity: A Test of the Snowball Effect in a Computational Model of RNA Folding.

Genetic incompatibilities can emerge as a byproduct of genetic divergence. According to Dobzhansky and Muller, an allele that fixes in one population may be incompatible with an allele at a different locus in another population when the two alleles are brought together in hybrids. Orr showed that the number of Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibilities (DMIs) should accumulate faster than linearly-, snowball-as two lineages diverge.