Fig. 1: Modeling the first steps of evolution in a randomly assembled community that competes for substitutable resources.
From: Predicting the first steps of evolution in randomly assembled communities
a Microbial strains compete for \({{{\mathcal{R}}}}\) resources that are continuously supplied by the environment at rates Ki. Each strain μ has a characteristic set of uptake rates rμ,i (arrows), which can be altered by further mutations. b A local pool of \({{{\mathcal{S}}}}\) initial species, whose phenotypes are randomly drawn from a common statistical distribution, self-assembles into an ecological equilibrium with \({{{{\mathcal{S}}}}} {*}\le {{{\mathcal{S}}}}\) surviving species (left). A new mutation (M) arises in one of the surviving species (P); if the mutation provides a fitness benefit, its descendants can either replace the parent strain (top right) or stably coexist with the parent, potentially driving another species to extinction (bottom right).
