Assisted percolation of slow-spreading mutants in heterogeneous environments

Thomas Tunstall; Tim Rogers; Wolfram Möbius

doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.108.044401

Assisted percolation of slow-spreading mutants in heterogeneous environments

Thomas Tunstall, Tim Rogers, Wolfram Möbius

University of Exeter

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Environmental heterogeneity can drive genetic heterogeneity in expanding populations; mutant strains may emerge that trade overall growth rate for an improved ability to survive in patches that are hostile to the wild type. This evolutionary dynamic is of practical importance when seeking to prevent the emergence of damaging traits. We show that a subcritical slow-spreading mutant can attain dominance even when the density of patches is below their percolation threshold and predict this transition using geometrical arguments. This work demonstrates a phenomenon of “assisted percolation”, where one subcritical process assists another to achieve supercriticality.

Original language	English
Article number	044401
Journal	Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
Volume	108
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.108.044401
Publication status	Published - 4 Oct 2023

Bibliographical note

We are grateful to Dibyendu Dutta for discussions and feedback on the manuscript. T.T. acknowledges support by the EPSRC DTP and Syngenta Crop Protection. W.M. acknowledges support by the BBSRC via BBSRC-NSF/BIO Grant BB/V011464/1. Most of the simulations of this paper were performed on the University of Exeter’s high performance computer ISCA.

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abstract = "Environmental heterogeneity can drive genetic heterogeneity in expanding populations; mutant strains may emerge that trade overall growth rate for an improved ability to survive in patches that are hostile to the wild type. This evolutionary dynamic is of practical importance when seeking to prevent the emergence of damaging traits. We show that a subcritical slow-spreading mutant can attain dominance even when the density of patches is below their percolation threshold and predict this transition using geometrical arguments. This work demonstrates a phenomenon of “assisted percolation”, where one subcritical process assists another to achieve supercriticality.",

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AB - Environmental heterogeneity can drive genetic heterogeneity in expanding populations; mutant strains may emerge that trade overall growth rate for an improved ability to survive in patches that are hostile to the wild type. This evolutionary dynamic is of practical importance when seeking to prevent the emergence of damaging traits. We show that a subcritical slow-spreading mutant can attain dominance even when the density of patches is below their percolation threshold and predict this transition using geometrical arguments. This work demonstrates a phenomenon of “assisted percolation”, where one subcritical process assists another to achieve supercriticality.

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Assisted percolation of slow-spreading mutants in heterogeneous environments

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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