Phenotypic heterogeneity in temporally fluctuating environments

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Browning, Alexander P, Hamis, Sara
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Browning, Alexander P
Hamis, Sara
author_facet Browning, Alexander P
Hamis, Sara
contents Many biological systems regulate phenotypic heterogeneity as a fitness-maximising strategy in uncertain and dynamic environments. Analysis of such strategies is typically confined both to a discrete set of environmental conditions, and to a discrete (often binary) set of phenotypes specialised to each condition. In this work, we extend theory on both fronts to encapsulate a potentially continuous spectrum of phenotypes arising in response to environmental fluctuations that drive changes in the phenotype-dependent growth rate. We consider two broad classes of stochastic environment: those that are temporally uncorrelated (modelled by white-noise processes), and those that are correlated (modelled by Poisson and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes). For tractability, we restrict analysis to an exponential growth model, and consider biologically relevant simplifications that pertain to the timescale of phenotype switching relative to fluctuations in the environment. These assumptions yield a series of analytical and semi-analytical expressions that reveal environments in which phenotypic heterogeneity is evolutionarily advantageous.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_03166
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Phenotypic heterogeneity in temporally fluctuating environments
Browning, Alexander P
Hamis, Sara
Populations and Evolution
92D15, 92D25, 60K37
Many biological systems regulate phenotypic heterogeneity as a fitness-maximising strategy in uncertain and dynamic environments. Analysis of such strategies is typically confined both to a discrete set of environmental conditions, and to a discrete (often binary) set of phenotypes specialised to each condition. In this work, we extend theory on both fronts to encapsulate a potentially continuous spectrum of phenotypes arising in response to environmental fluctuations that drive changes in the phenotype-dependent growth rate. We consider two broad classes of stochastic environment: those that are temporally uncorrelated (modelled by white-noise processes), and those that are correlated (modelled by Poisson and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes). For tractability, we restrict analysis to an exponential growth model, and consider biologically relevant simplifications that pertain to the timescale of phenotype switching relative to fluctuations in the environment. These assumptions yield a series of analytical and semi-analytical expressions that reveal environments in which phenotypic heterogeneity is evolutionarily advantageous.
title Phenotypic heterogeneity in temporally fluctuating environments
topic Populations and Evolution
92D15, 92D25, 60K37
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.03166