ArticlePloS one2020
On the difficult evolutionary transition from the free-living lifestyle to obligate symbiosis.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Coevolution of Codependent Hosts and Symbionts.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Characterizing the evolution of defense in a tripartite marine symbiosis using adaptive dynamics.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Theoretical Study of Sphingomyelinases fromPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- How do host age and nutrition affect density regulation of obligate versus facultative bacterial symbionts? Insights from the tsetse fly.ISME communications · 2025Article
- Modeling endosymbioses: Insights and hypotheses from theoretical approaches.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Genesis of ectosymbiotic features based on commensalistic syntrophy.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Native tube-building polychaete prefers to anchor non-native alga over other macrophytes.Oecologia · 2022Article
- Modeling host-associating microbes under selection.The ISME journal · 2021Article
- Symbiosis and the Anthropocene.Symbiosis (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Obligate symbiosis evolved from free-living individuals most likely via the intermediate stage of facultative symbiosis. However, why should facultative symbionts, who can live independently but also benefit from their partners if these are available, give up this best of both worlds? Using the adaptive dynamics approach, we analyse a simple model, focusing on one partner of the symbiosis, to gain more insight into the selective forces that make individuals forgo the ability to reproduce in the free-living state. Our results suggest that, similar to the parasitism-mutualism continuum, the free-living way of life and obligate symbiosis are two extremes of a continuum of the ability to reproduce independently of a partner. More importantly, facultative symbiosis should be the rule as for many parameter combinations completely giving up independent reproduction or adopting a pure free-living strategy is not so easy. We also show that if host encounter comes at a cost, individuals that put more effort into increasing the chances to meet with their partners are more likely to give up the ability to reproduce independently. Finally, our model does not specify the ecological interactions between hosts and symbionts but we discuss briefly how the ecological nature of an interaction can influence the transition from facultative to obligate symbiosis.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.