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Horizontally acquired mutualisms, an unsolved problem in ecology?
Author(s) -
Wilkinson David M.,
Sherratt Thomas N.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
oikos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.672
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1600-0706
pISSN - 0030-1299
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0706.2001.920222.x
Subject(s) - mutualism (biology) , ecology , biology , evolutionary ecology , evolutionary biology , host (biology)
Current models of the evolution and maintenance of mutualism stress the importance of vertical transmission and the genetic uniformity of symbionts to evolutionary stability. Here we point out that many well‐known mutualistic relationships involve symbionts that are neither vertically transmitted nor genetically uniform. We have therefore re‐examined some of the existing models in an attempt to identify general conditions under which horizontally acquired mutualisms might be evolutionarily stable.