Cellular Heterogeneity: Benefits Besides Bet-Hedging

Cellular Heterogeneity: Benefits Besides Bet-Hedging

Growth heterogeneity within microbial populations has been thought to increase fitness by allowing some cells to survive an unpredictable change to a harsh environment. A new study demonstrates that heterogeneity can increase fitness even in the absence of environmental changes.

What is bet-hedging, really?

Bet Hedging against Demographic Fluctuations.

Biological organisms have to cope with stochastic variations in both the external environment and the internal population dynamics. Theoretical studies and laboratory experiments suggest that population diversification could be an effective bet-hedging strategy for adaptation to varying environments. Here we show that bet hedging can also be effective against demographic fluctuations that pose ...

Phenotypic Plasticity, Bet-Hedging, and Androgen Independence in Prostate Cancer: Role of Non-Genetic Heterogeneity

It is well known that genetic mutations can drive drug resistance and lead to tumor relapse. Here, we focus on alternate mechanisms-those without mutations, such as phenotypic plasticity and stochastic cell-to-cell variability that can also evade drug attacks by giving rise to drug-tolerant persisters. The phenomenon of persistence has been well-studied in bacteria and has also recently garnere...

Bet-hedging as a complex interaction among developmental instability, environmental heterogeneity, dispersal, and life-history strategy

One potential evolutionary response to environmental heterogeneity is the production of randomly variable offspring through developmental instability, a type of bet-hedging. I used an individual-based, genetically explicit model to examine the evolution of developmental instability. The model considered both temporal and spatial heterogeneity alone and in combination, the effect of migration pa...