Chapter 26
The Game of Evolution Is Won by
Competitive Cheating
Christon J. Hurst
Abstract Evolution is a competitive game and cheating wins against fair competition. If one group cheats successfully, then that group gains an advantage and the
other groups need to find a similar strategy in order to survive. Examples of
evolutionary cheating include having learned aerobic respiration at a time when
biology perceived molecular oxygen to be a metabolic waste product. The full range
of symbiotic associations from cooperation to predation can also be perceived as
representing efforts to gain a competitive advantage because, after all, if you cannot
successfully work together with your potential competitors then either stealing what
they have created or simply eating your competition may prove to be the more
successful route. It also is important to understand that the process of natural
selection does not act upon individual species as if they were independent entities.
Instead, natural selection acts upon the homobium, which is a term suggested by
Bernhard Frank in 1877 to describe the combination of a species and its associated
symbionts. This essay presents a summary of mutualistic symbioses including the
adoption of mitochondria which are the aerobic power house of eukaryotic life,
chloroplastids in their many forms among which are algal and bacterial symbionts
that provide fixed carbon from photosynthesis, and bacteria as well as cyanobacteria
that serve as nitrogen fixing symbionts of plants. The biological activity of endogenous viruses also qualifies them as mutualistic symbionts, and they too are part of
the homobium that defines their host.
26.1 Introduction
When I was an undergraduate student studying biology at the University of Cincinnati, in Cincinnati, Ohio, one of my professors was Alex S. (Stewart) Fraser. Alex
very enthusiastically taught the course on evolution. During one of our lectures he
asked our class the question “How do you win at evolution?” and he then
C. J. Hurst (*)
Cincinnati, OH, USA
Universidad del Valle Cali, Santiago de Cali, Valle, Colombia
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. J. Hurst (ed.), Microbes: The Foundation Stone of the Biosphere, Advances in
Environmental Microbiology 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63512-1_26
545
The Game of Evolution Is Won by
Competitive Cheating
Christon J. Hurst
Abstract Evolution is a competitive game and cheating wins against fair competition. If one group cheats successfully, then that group gains an advantage and the
other groups need to find a similar strategy in order to survive. Examples of
evolutionary cheating include having learned aerobic respiration at a time when
biology perceived molecular oxygen to be a metabolic waste product. The full range
of symbiotic associations from cooperation to predation can also be perceived as
representing efforts to gain a competitive advantage because, after all, if you cannot
successfully work together with your potential competitors then either stealing what
they have created or simply eating your competition may prove to be the more
successful route. It also is important to understand that the process of natural
selection does not act upon individual species as if they were independent entities.
Instead, natural selection acts upon the homobium, which is a term suggested by
Bernhard Frank in 1877 to describe the combination of a species and its associated
symbionts. This essay presents a summary of mutualistic symbioses including the
adoption of mitochondria which are the aerobic power house of eukaryotic life,
chloroplastids in their many forms among which are algal and bacterial symbionts
that provide fixed carbon from photosynthesis, and bacteria as well as cyanobacteria
that serve as nitrogen fixing symbionts of plants. The biological activity of endogenous viruses also qualifies them as mutualistic symbionts, and they too are part of
the homobium that defines their host.
26.1 Introduction
When I was an undergraduate student studying biology at the University of Cincinnati, in Cincinnati, Ohio, one of my professors was Alex S. (Stewart) Fraser. Alex
very enthusiastically taught the course on evolution. During one of our lectures he
asked our class the question “How do you win at evolution?” and he then
C. J. Hurst (*)
Cincinnati, OH, USA
Universidad del Valle Cali, Santiago de Cali, Valle, Colombia
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. J. Hurst (ed.), Microbes: The Foundation Stone of the Biosphere, Advances in
Environmental Microbiology 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63512-1_26
545