Selection on sporulation strategies in a metapopulation can lead to coexistence.

The article focuses on modeling the eco-evolutionary dynamics of sporulation strategies in yeast within a metapopulation framework, demonstrating how a natural competition–colonization trade-off enables coexistence of strains with varying sporulation rates. Using a chemostat-like model for within-patch resource renewal and dispersal via spores, the study shows that intermediate sporulation rates maximize colonization ability and metapopulation persistence, while very low or high rates lead to extinction. Adaptive dynamics and pairwise invasibility plots reveal that multiple sporulation strategies can stably coexist, and stochastic simulations confirm that mutation rates and effect sizes influence the diversity and occupancy of coexisting strategies. The findings suggest that differences in sporulation propensity may explain the coexistence of closely related yeast species such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces paradoxus, even when other physiological traits are similar.