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The coexistence of r and K strategy in a unicellular microalga Haematococcus lacustris


Abstract

Understanding how organisms balance growth and defence is a general goal in biology. r (high reproductivity but stress-sensitive offspring) and K (low reproductivity but high stress-resistant offspring) selection are two classical life history strategy theories. Contrary to the common belief that an organism can only be classified as either r or K strategist, by integrating physiological, microscopic and transcriptomic data, we present experimental evidence for the coexistence of both strategies in the unicellular microalga Haematococcus lacustris. Under standard conditions, swimming vegetative cells (SVCs) normally grow and reproduce via binary fission (r strategy) and gradually transform into non-swimming cells (NSCs) over time. Intriguingly, unlike the prevailing notion that NSCs cannot propagate, they are found to reproduce via multiple fission at a barely detectable growth rate, resulting in stress-resistant, non_mobile daughter cells, demonstrating a complete life history (thus are defined as K strategy). Collectively, our findings suggest that H. lacustris adopts both r and K strategies, enhancing the understanding of the adaptation and survival of microbial populations in challenging environments.

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Data availability

The authors declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its supplementary files. The raw data of RNA-Seq are available from NCBI’s SRA database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) under BioProject PRJNA1157585. KEGG database (https://www.kegg.jp/) was used for functional enrichment analyses. The source data behind the figures in the paper are available in Supplementary data. Any remaining information can be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

Data processing, significance analysis, and chart plotting were performed using OriginPro software. No specific code was developed for this work.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the S&T Projects of Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee (KCXFZ20230731093402005 and SGDX20220530111204028), and China Resources Beverage (Holdings) Co., Ltd. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors.

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L.L., ZH.C., S.T. conceptualised and designed the experiments. L.L., YQ.L., L.L., ZH.C., S.T. conceptualised and designed the experiments. L.L., YQ.L., visualised the data. All authors interpreted the results and wrote the manuscript.

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Si Tang or Zhonghua Cai.

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Liu, L., Liu, Y., Tang, S. et al. The coexistence of r and K strategy in a unicellular microalga Haematococcus lacustris.
Commun Biol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09922-2

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