Authors: Matthew Asker, Mohamed Swailem, Uwe C. Täuber, and Mauro Mobilia
We have a new pre-print!
Update (October 2025): the paper has been accepted in Physical Review Research.
You can find it on arXiv at the following link: 10.48550/arXiv.2504.08433
Alternatively, it is also on bioRxiv: 10.1101/2025.04.10.648186
Supporting code and data can be found here: 10.5518/1660
See below for a brief summary of the paper!
Microbial populations inhabit spatially structured environments that vary over time. This variation causes fluctuations with significant eco-evolutionary consequences that remain underexplored. In this study, we examine how spatial structure, migration, and changing environmental conditions jointly influence the risks of mutant takeover and population extinction. We develop a general framework that enables us to analyse the fate of time-fluctuating metapopulations. Our findings – relevant to Biophysics, Evolutionary Game Theory, and Ecology – highlight the profound impact of environmental variability. For example, in the context of an idealised treatment scenario, we explore how fluctuations might be harnessed to eliminate a deleterious mutant.
