TY - JOUR
T1 - Cycles of external dependency drive evolution of avian carotenoid networks
AU - Badyaev, Alexander V.
AU - Posner, Alexander B.
AU - Morrison, Erin S.
AU - Higginson, Dawn M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank M.J. Sanderson, A.Y. Okounkov, B. Poonen, and C. Schmidt-Dannert for computational and technical advice, V. Belloni for help with the data collection, and R.A. Duckworth, F.H. Arnold, G.R. Bowman, F.J. Ayala, N.A. Formozov, Y. Song, and A.C. Spradling for insightful comments or critical evaluations of previous versions of this manuscript. Publication of this article was funded by the University of Arizona Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund and the Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII) sponsored by the UC Berkeley Library. This study was funded by the National Science Foundation (DEB-0075388, IBN-0218313, and DEB-0077804) and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - All organisms depend on input of exogenous compounds that cannot be internally produced. Gain and loss of such dependencies structure ecological communities and drive species’ evolution, yet the evolution of mechanisms that accommodate these variable dependencies remain elusive. Here, we show that historical cycles of gains and losses of external dependencies in avian carotenoid-producing networks are linked to their evolutionary diversification. This occurs because internalization of metabolic controls—produced when gains in redundancy of dietary inputs coincide with increased branching of their derived products—enables rapid and sustainable exploration of an existing network by shielding it from environmental fluctuations in inputs. Correspondingly, loss of internal controls constrains evolution to the rate of the gains and losses of dietary precursors. Because internalization of a network’s controls necessarily bridges diet-specific enzymatic modules within a network, it structurally links local adaptation and continuous evolution even for traits fully dependent on contingent external inputs.
AB - All organisms depend on input of exogenous compounds that cannot be internally produced. Gain and loss of such dependencies structure ecological communities and drive species’ evolution, yet the evolution of mechanisms that accommodate these variable dependencies remain elusive. Here, we show that historical cycles of gains and losses of external dependencies in avian carotenoid-producing networks are linked to their evolutionary diversification. This occurs because internalization of metabolic controls—produced when gains in redundancy of dietary inputs coincide with increased branching of their derived products—enables rapid and sustainable exploration of an existing network by shielding it from environmental fluctuations in inputs. Correspondingly, loss of internal controls constrains evolution to the rate of the gains and losses of dietary precursors. Because internalization of a network’s controls necessarily bridges diet-specific enzymatic modules within a network, it structurally links local adaptation and continuous evolution even for traits fully dependent on contingent external inputs.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-019-09579-y
DO - 10.1038/s41467-019-09579-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 30962432
AN - SCOPUS:85064069549
VL - 10
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
SN - 2041-1723
IS - 1
M1 - 1596
ER -