Not strictly cancer but the topic is very relevant to many of us trying to understand the emergence of invasiveness.
The Role of Migration in the Evolution of Phenotypic Switching
Oana Carja, Robert E Furrow, Marc W Feldman
Stochastic switching is an example of phenotypic bet-hedging, where an
individual can switch between different phenotypic states in a
fluctuating environment. Although the evolution of stochastic switching
has been studied when the environment varies temporally, there has been
little theoretical work on the evolution of phenotypic switching under
both spatially and temporally fluctuating selection pressures. Here we
use a population genetic model to explore the interaction of temporal
and spatial variation in the evolutionary dynamics of phenotypic
switching. We find that spatial variation in selection is important;
when selection pressures are similar across space, migration can
decrease the rate of switching, but when selection pressures differ
spatially, increasing migration between demes can facilitate the
evolution of higher rates of switching. These results may help explain
the diverse array of non-genetic contributions to phenotypic variability
and phenotypic inheritance observed in both wild and experimental
populations.
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