Version 1
: Received: 25 November 2020 / Approved: 27 November 2020 / Online: 27 November 2020 (16:52:24 CET)
Version 2
: Received: 30 November 2020 / Approved: 1 December 2020 / Online: 1 December 2020 (09:44:13 CET)
Version 3
: Received: 18 December 2020 / Approved: 21 December 2020 / Online: 21 December 2020 (11:29:19 CET)
Version 4
: Received: 31 August 2022 / Approved: 31 August 2022 / Online: 31 August 2022 (14:37:11 CEST)
How to cite:
Burnetti, A.; Ratcliff, W. The Origin of Phototrophy Reveals the Importance of Priority Effects for Evolutionary Innovation. Preprints2020, 2020110700. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202011.0700.v4
Burnetti, A.; Ratcliff, W. The Origin of Phototrophy Reveals the Importance of Priority Effects for Evolutionary Innovation. Preprints 2020, 2020110700. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202011.0700.v4
Burnetti, A.; Ratcliff, W. The Origin of Phototrophy Reveals the Importance of Priority Effects for Evolutionary Innovation. Preprints2020, 2020110700. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202011.0700.v4
APA Style
Burnetti, A., & Ratcliff, W. (2022). The Origin of Phototrophy Reveals the Importance of Priority Effects for Evolutionary Innovation. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202011.0700.v4
Chicago/Turabian Style
Burnetti, A. and William Ratcliff. 2022 "The Origin of Phototrophy Reveals the Importance of Priority Effects for Evolutionary Innovation" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202011.0700.v4
Abstract
The history of life on Earth has been shaped by a series of major evolutionary innovations. While some of these innovations occur repeatedly, some of the most important innovations are evolutionary singularities, arising only once. This fact has often been interpreted to mean that singularities are particularly difficult, low-probability evolutionary events, implying the long-term course of life on Earth is highly contingent. Alternatively, singularities could arise from evolutionary priority effects, where first-movers suppress subsequent independent origins. Here, we disentangle these hypotheses by examining the origins of phototrophy. The ability to use light for energy evolved independently twice, preserving information about their origins that is lost when examining singularities. We show that the two forms of phototrophy occupy opposite ends of key trade-offs: most importantly efficiency of light capture vs. return on investment. Our results suggest that the dual singularity of phototrophy exists due to evolutionary interactions between nascent phototrophs, within a phototrophic niche space too large for a single first mover to fill all niches and fully suppress all future innovation. While often ignored over geological time scales, ecological interactions and evolutionary priority effects may play a fundamental role in the tempo and mode of major evolutionary innovations.
Keywords
photosynthesis; phototrophy; priority effects
Subject
Arts and Humanities, Humanities
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Received:
31 August 2022
Commenter:
Anthony Burnetti
Commenter's Conflict of Interests:
Author
Comment:
Significant update. Abstract edited. The majority of background moved to supplement, and analysis is now centered on a mathematical model of the physiological capabilities of retinalophototrophic metabolism and chlorophototrophic metabolism and the effects of their relationship on their evolutionary history. Miscellaneous edits throuhghout.
Commenter: Anthony Burnetti
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Incoll, L. D., S. P. Long, and M. A. Ashmore. "SI units in publications in plant science." Commentaries in plant science 2 (2013): 83-96.
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Quick note: Béja 2000 cited in SM is for proteorhodopsin, not bacteriorhodopsin as stated.