Forging an evolutionary individual from separate replicators
- 1Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
Abstract
Major evolutionary transitions occur when independently replicating particles unite into a higher-level individual. How selection comes to work on particle collectives and generates reliable heredity is unresolved. By packaging red and green plasmids in yeast cells we made plasmid communities units of selection: cell boundaries supplied discreteness, segregation generated variation, and cell division reproduced communities. Communities colouring cells yellow were preferentially propagated. Initially, yellow parents rarely produced yellow offspring, but continued selection aligned replicative fates of the two plasmids favouring recombinants that fused with the endogenous 2-micron element. Chimera stability was secured by mutations in FLP1, which encodes a recombinase that otherwise resolves fused replicons. Reliable collective heredity, here, a derived product of higher-level selection, marked completion of an evolutionary transition in individuality.
Related
- An Evolutionary Hypothesis for White's Illusion: Constant Percentage Correction and Modern Individual Variation
- Forging Sustainable Research: Integrating Sustainability into Neuroscience Education
- Distinct population dimensions separate sensory adaptation and expectation-related signals in visual cortex
- Evidence-resolved benchmarks separate biological context recognition from direct-partner specificity in protein interaction models
- Separate and concurrent use of methamphetamine and fentanyl: behavioral and neurobiological consequences
BibTeX
@misc{hernandezbeltran2026forging,
title = {{Forging an evolutionary individual from separate replicators}},
author = {J. C. R. Hernandez-Beltran and E. McConnell and D. W. Rogers and P. B. Rainey},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.64898/2026.08.05.743067},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.05.743067v2},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Forging an evolutionary individual from separate replicators
AU - J. C. R. Hernandez-Beltran
AU - E. McConnell
AU - D. W. Rogers
AU - P. B. Rainey
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/05
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.08.05.743067
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.05.743067v2
AB - Major evolutionary transitions occur when independently replicating particles unite into a higher-level individual. How selection comes to work on particle collectives and generates reliable heredity is unresolved. By packaging red and green plasmids in yeast cells we made plasmid communities units of selection: cell boundaries supplied discreteness, segregation generated variation, and cell division reproduced communities. Communities colouring cells yellow were preferentially propagated. Initially, yellow parents rarely produced yellow offspring, but continued selection aligned replicative fates of the two plasmids favouring recombinants that fused with the endogenous 2-micron element. Chimera stability was secured by mutations in FLP1, which encodes a recombinase that otherwise resolves fused replicons. Reliable collective heredity, here, a derived product of higher-level selection, marked completion of an evolutionary transition in individuality.
ER -