RT @yuanxiao_gao: Excited to share our latest theoretical work on how irreversible cell differentiation evolves under changing cell divisio….

Nine PhD positions are open at Max Planck Institute. Come to work with me on modeling of the origins of organismic complexity at the onset of multicellular life. Application deadline is January 26.

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RT @RicardoMtzG: I am looking for a PhD student to join our work at @CASUSscience and work on ecological pattern formation. The project is….

RT @mariakleshnina: PhD opportunity! 🥳Interested in game theory, ecology and evolution? Want to make a difference and change how we think a….

RT @chilbe3: 🚨 We are looking for two (!) PhD students to join our group. One project is on modeling cooperation in changing environments.….

RT @BenjaminWerner_: We have an opening for two post doc positions here in sunny London to work on the evolution of extra-chromosomal DNA i….

RT @Uni_WUE: Welcome to JMU @GokhaleCS! As new professor for Theoretical #Biology Chaitanya Gokhale develops scientific theories on the mos….

RT @wc_ratcliff: @CurrentBiology just published two cool papers on the role of life cycles in the evolution of multicellularity. One by @Ev….

RT @GokhaleCS: 2 funded PhD positions available @MarsdenFund to investigate diversity in gene regulation in #Pseudomonas. Join @NatSciMasse….

Have a look at our new story on how cyanobacteria alter their environment and the environment in turn shapes the life cycle of that cyanobacteria.

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RT @ernestoberriosc: We are excited to announce a symposium on the mathematical modelling of resistance evolution (bacteria and cancer) at….

Still, if we ask which life cycles can be evolutionary stable (i.e. cannot be invaded from rare), their diversity is exactly predicted by the previous model with unconstrained growth. So, that much simpler model is not too bad after all. 7/7.

The composition of these, i.e. a bi-stability between different combinations of coexisting life cycles is a thing too. 6/7.

We found that there is no such thing as an "optimal life cycle" in this model - the end state of the population dynamics may depend on the initial conditions (bi-stability). The end state may be a coexistence of several life cycles. 5/7.

Here, we added competition between colonies, so the growth pattern changed from exponential to logistic one. Most of the nice math we had before went out the window. Still, the few remained properties were useful enough to reconstruct the beautiful dynamics of the system. 4/7.

There are some mathematically beautiful and, at the same time, biologically meaningful results coming from this model. However, these results assume that resources and space are infinite and the best life cycle is the one that grows faster than every other. 3/7.

The model at the core of the theory is simple: when cells divide, they are stuck together, and the resulting cell colony grows until it fragments into smaller pieces. Colonies change their properties with size, so some fragmentation patterns are better than others. 2/7.

Our work with Vanessa Ress and @EvolTheoArne on the interplay between evolution and ecology of multicellular life cycles is out! Here, we extend the theory of clonal life cycles evolution by adding competitive interactions between colonies. 1/7.