title: Competing metabolic strategies in a multilevel selection model.
abstract: The evolutionary mechanisms of energy efficiency have been addressed. One important question is to understand how the optimized usage of energy can be selected in an evolutionary process, especially when the immediate advantage of gathering efficient individuals in an energetic context is not clear. We propose a model of two competing metabolic strategies differing in their resource usage, an efficient strain which converts resource into energy at high efficiency but displays a low rate of resource consumption, and an inefficient strain which consumes resource at a high rate but at low yield. We explore the dynamics in both well-mixed and structured populations. The selection for optimized energy usage is measured by the likelihood that an efficient strain can invade a population of inefficient strains. It is found that the parameter space at which the efficient strain can thrive in structured populations is always broader than observed in well-mixed populations.
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Dynamics Lab, Department of Physics , Federal University of Pernambuco , 50670-901 Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amado
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Dynamics Lab, Department of Physics , Federal University of Pernambuco , 50670-901 Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
authors.forename: Lenin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Theory , Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology , August-Thienemann-Straße 2, 24306 Plön, Germany.
authors.forename: Weini
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Complex Systems , University of São Paulo , 03828-000 São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernando F
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Dynamics Lab, Department of Physics , Federal University of Pernambuco , 50670-901 Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
authors.forename: Paulo R A
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7823-1998
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Campos
keywords: evolutionary game theory; metabolic pathways; resource-based model