Fig. 3.

Adaptive death and group selection in C. elegans (hypothetical schemes). Top panel, scheme of idealized, simplified life cycle of C. elegans colonies. As shown a single dauer larva colonises a food patch, but in reality many dauers and multiple genotypes may colonize the same patch. The colony life cycle ends with production of a yield of dauer larvae, which disperse to new food patches and seed new colonies. Bottom panel, evolution of adaptive death by group selection. Here a hypothetical C. elegans ancestor without adaptive death is shown in red, and a new variant with adaptive death is shown in green. In the new variant, adaptive death within the nematode colony increases food availability for population growth, increasing dauer yield. Consequently, adaptive death-positive nematode colonies outcompete their non-altruistic ancestors.