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Invertebrate Historecognition pp 157–167Cite as

The Evolution of Allorecognition Specificity

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Part of the book series: Bodega Marine Laboratory Marine Science Series ((BMSS))

Abstract

Intraspecific aggression between clonal cnidarians is not random with respect to genotype; instead, agonistic behavior is modified according to the relatedness of contestants such that clonemates and close relatives behave passively, whereas more distant relatives behave aggressively. Aggression is often costly, with contestants suffering injury and losing space for attachment and growth. Similarly, intraspecific somatic fusion in many sponges, cnidarians, bryozoans, and ascidians is limited to interactions between close relatives and is thought to carry substantial fitness costs.

Such behavioral restriction requires the existence of both an allorecognition system and a set of cues that provides specific labels or relatedness. Several studies suggest that labels of identity (allotypes) are provided by one, or a few loci. Individual specificity therefore requires that the loci conferring allotypic specificity carry high levels of allelic variation. In the case of aggression, allotypic specificity directs aggression away from clonemates and close kin, and toward more distant relatives. In the context of fusion, allotypic specificity limits the potential for intraspecific fusion and its attendant costs.

Taken together, these considerations impiy that rare allorecognition alleles, and the labels of individuality that they confer, should be favored by natural selection. However, the mechanistic models of aggression analyzed in this paper show that the individual costs and benefits of aggression alone will not favor the accumulation and maintenance of allotypic specificity. In contrast, allotypic polymorphism can be maintained directly by the individual costs and benefits of fusion provided fusion carries a net fitness cost. This raises the question of how fusion conditioned on relatedness can be evolutionarily stable. Our results suggest that selection acting at the level of clonal or kin-aggregations, rather than at the level of the individual, may provide an explanation for the evolution of allotypic specificity through aggression or fusion.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of California, Davis, California, 95616, USA

    Richard K. Grosberg

  2. Division of Environmental Studies, University of California, Davis, California, 95616, USA

    James F. Quinn

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  1. Richard K. Grosberg
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  2. James F. Quinn
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA

    Richard K. Grosberg

  2. Bodega Marine Laboratory, University of California, Davis, Bodega Bay, California, USA

    Dennis Hedgecock  & Keith Nelson  & 

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© 1988 Plenum Press, New York

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Grosberg, R.K., Quinn, J.F. (1988). The Evolution of Allorecognition Specificity. In: Grosberg, R.K., Hedgecock, D., Nelson, K. (eds) Invertebrate Historecognition. Bodega Marine Laboratory Marine Science Series. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1053-2_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1053-2_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8311-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-1053-2

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