This paper develops a quasispecies model where cells can adopt a two-cell
survival strategy. Within this strategy, pairs of cells join together, at which
point one of the cells sacrifices its own replicative ability for the sake of
the other cell. We develop a simplified model for the evolutionary dynamics of
this process, allowing us to solve for the steady-state using standard
approaches from quasispecies theory. We find that our model exhibits two
distinct regimes of behavior: At low concentrations of limiting resource, the
two-cell strategy outcompetes the single-cell survival strategy, while at high
concentrations of limiting resource, the single-cell survival strategy
dominates. Associated with the two solution regimes of our model is a
localization to delocalization transition over the portion of the genome coding
for the multicell strategy, analogous to the error catastrophe in standard
quasispecies models. The existence of such a transition indicates that
multicellularity can emerge because natural selection does not act on specific
cells, but rather on replicative strategies. Within this framework, individual
cells become the means by which replicative strategies are propagated. Such a
framework is therefore consistent with the concept that natural selection does
not act on individuals, but rather on populations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to be submitted to Physical Review Letter
