Long-term predator-prey coevolution effect on prey

Recent studies have revealed bacterial genome-wide evolution to be complex and dynamic even in a constant environment, characterized by the emergence of new clades competing or temporarily coexisting as each clade undergoes evolutionary change. Previous studies on predator-prey dynamics tracking simple ecological and phenotypic metrics have shown predation to fundamentally alter prey evolution, facilitating defense evolution followed by coevolution and frequency dependent selection between defended and undefended prey genotypes. Here we sought to consolidate these fields by examining genome-wide evolution in five bacterial prey species separately subjected to long-term evolution under ciliate predation. We hypothesized that the presence of predation could change the pattern of clonal dynamics, for example, by more frequently producing selective sweeps if predation-defense-related mutations are under strong selection. For all species, we found mutational signals of prey adaptation, with phenotypic data and genomic mutation targets demonstrating changes in composition between the experimental treatments. Intriguingly, despite higher variant counts, overall temporal clade dynamics across the coevolved prey species were strikingly similar to those of bacteria evolving alone, with constant emergence, competition and quasi-stable coexistence of clades. This study shows that long-term molecular evolution in bacterial prey under predation is more interesting and less predictable than we might expect based on existing coevolutionary theories.