Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2019 Jul;3(7):1018-1029. doi: 10.1038/s41559-019-0907-1. Epub 2019 Jun 28.
Cooperation occurs at all levels of life, from genomes, complex cells and multicellular organisms to societies and mutualisms between species. A major question for evolutionary biology is what these diverse systems have in common. Here, we review the full breadth of cooperative systems and find that they frequently rely on enforcement mechanisms that suppress selfish behaviour. We discuss many examples, including the suppression of transposable elements, uniparental inheritance of mitochondria and plastids, anti-cancer mechanisms, reciprocation and punishment in humans and other vertebrates, policing in eusocial insects and partner choice in mutualisms between species. To address a lack of accompanying theory, we develop a series of evolutionary models that show that the enforcement of cooperation is widely predicted. We argue that enforcement is an underappreciated, and often critical, ingredient for cooperation across all scales of biological organization.
合作发生在生命的各个层面，从基因组、复杂细胞和多细胞生物到社会以及物种间的互利共生。进化生物学的一个主要问题是这些不同的系统有什么共同之处。在这里，我们回顾了广泛的合作系统，发现它们经常依赖于抑制自私行为的执行机制。我们讨论了许多例子，包括转座因子的抑制、线粒体和质体的单亲遗传、抗癌机制、人类和其他脊椎动物的互惠和惩罚、真社会性昆虫的监管以及物种间互利共生的伴侣选择。为了解决缺乏伴随理论的问题，我们开发了一系列进化模型，表明合作的执行是广泛预测的。我们认为，执行是合作在所有生物组织规模上的一个被低估的、但通常是关键的组成部分。
