Evolving generalists in switching rugged landscapes
Fig 1
A schematic view of switching landscapes and adaptive walks demonstrating possible attractor types.
Cycling distinct yet correlated rugged landscapes can drive population escape from specialists—genotypes fit in a particular environment (orange/gray star in environment A/B) and open new paths (arrows) to generalists—genotypes that remain fit in different environments (blue star). While generalists constitute fixed point attractors in changing environments, specialists located in each other’s basin of attraction on alternating landscapes form limit cycle attractors.