用簡單微生物系統所做實驗有可能為演化和生態(tài)過程提供線索。但這樣的實驗結果一般是否適用于真正的生態(tài)系統,？Forde等人構建了關于宿主-寄生體共演化在不同營養(yǎng)水平上可能會怎樣影響多樣性的數學模型,。利用T7噬菌體和大腸桿菌，他們發(fā)現,，很多模擬結果對相互作用的生態(tài)細節(jié)是不敏感的,。但該模型體系的特性是可以預測和通過實驗確認的，說明這些數學模型是可靠的,。這種將一系列模型與實驗確認相結合的做法,，為了解哪些預測也許會是模型敏感的、哪些更具一般意義提供了一個方法,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Nature 455, 220-223 (11 September 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature07152
Understanding the limits to generalizability of experimental evolutionary models
Samantha E. Forde1,5, Robert E. Beardmore2,5, Ivana Gudelj2,3,5, Sinan S. Arkin2, John N. Thompson1 & Laurence D. Hurst4
1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA
2 Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
3 Department of Mathematical Sciences and,
4 Department of Biology & Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
5 These authors contributed equally to this work.
Given the difficulty of testing evolutionary and ecological theory in situ, in vitro model systems are attractive alternatives1; however, can we appraise whether an experimental result is particular to the in vitro model, and, if so, characterize the systems likely to behave differently and understand why? Here we examine these issues using the relationship between phenotypic diversity and resource input in the T7–Escherichia colico-evolving system as a case history. We establish a mathematical model of this interaction, framed as one instance of a super-class of host–parasite co-evolutionary models, and show that it captures experimental results. By tuning this model, we then ask how diversity as a function of resource input could behave for alternative co-evolving partners (for example, E. coli with lambda bacteriophages). In contrast to populations lacking bacteriophages, variation in diversity with differences in resources is always found for co-evolving populations, supporting the geographic mosaic theory of co-evolution2. The form of this variation is not, however, universal. Details of infectivity are pivotal: in T7–E. coli with a modified gene-for-gene interaction, diversity is low at high resource input, whereas, for matching-allele interactions, maximal diversity is found at high resource input. A combination of in vitro systems and appropriately configured mathematical models is an effective means to isolate results particular to the in vitro system, to characterize systems likely to behave differently and to understand the biology underpinning those alternatives.
