St John's College, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Elife. 2021 Oct 29;10:e71968. doi: 10.7554/eLife.71968.
Recent theory has overturned the assumption that accelerating returns from individual specialisation are required to favour the evolution of division of labour. Yanni et al., 2020, showed that topologically constrained groups, where cells cooperate with only direct neighbours such as for filaments or branching growths, can evolve a reproductive division of labour even with diminishing returns from individual specialisation. We develop a conceptual framework and specific models to investigate the factors that can favour the initial evolution of reproductive division of labour. We find that selection for division of labour in topologically constrained groups: (1) is not a single mechanism to favour division of labour-depending upon details of the group structure, division of labour can be favoured for different reasons; (2) always involves an efficiency benefit at the level of group fitness; and (3) requires a mechanism of coordination to determine which individuals perform which tasks. Given that such coordination must evolve prior to or concurrently with division of labour, this could limit the extent to which topological constraints favoured the initial evolution of division of labour. We conclude by suggesting experimental designs that could determine why division of labour is favoured in the natural world.
最近的理论推翻了这样一种假设，即个人专业化的加速回报是有利于劳动分工进化的必要条件。Yanni 等人，2020 年表明，在拓扑约束的群体中，细胞只与直接相邻的细胞（如丝状或分支生长）合作，即使个人专业化的回报递减，也可以进化出生殖分工。我们开发了一个概念框架和具体模型来研究有利于生殖分工初始进化的因素。我们发现，拓扑约束群体中分工的选择：(1) 不是单一的有利于分工的机制——取决于群体结构的细节，分工可以有不同的原因；(2) 总是在群体适应度水平上带来效率优势；(3) 需要协调机制来确定哪些个体执行哪些任务。鉴于这种协调必须在分工之前或同时进化，这可能会限制拓扑约束有利于分工初始进化的程度。最后，我们提出了实验设计，这可以确定为什么分工在自然界中受到青睐。
