Abstract
Viruses and their hosts can undergo coevolutionary arms races where hosts evolve increased resistance and viruses evolve counter-resistance. Given these arms race dynamics (ARD), each species is predicted to evolve along a single trajectory as more recently evolved genotypes replace their predecessors. Here, by coupling phenotypic and genomic analyses of coevolving populations of bacteriophage λ and Escherichia coli, we find conflicting evidence for ARD. Virus-host infection phenotypes fit the ARD model, yet whole genome analyses did not. Rather than coevolution unfolding along a single trajectory, cryptic genetic variation emerges during initial virus-host coevolution. This variation is maintained across generations and eventually supplants dominant lineages. Our observations constitute a new type of ‘leapfrog’ coevolutionary dynamics (LFD), revealing weaknesses in the predictive power of standard coevolutionary models. The findings shed light on the mechanisms that structure coevolving ecological networks and reveal the limits of using phenotypic assays alone in characterizing coevolutionary dynamics.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
↵+ Authors contributed equally