Evolution of Multicellularity
A special issue of Genes (ISSN 2073-4425). This special issue belongs to the section "Population and Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2021) | Viewed by 30363
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
The emergence of multicellular organisms was perhaps the most spectacular of the major transitions during the evolutionary history of life on this planet. Transitions to multicellularity are generally considered to have occurred in two stages, with the acquisition of simple multicellularity occurring more easily than the subsequent emergence of complex multicellular lifeforms. To become multicellular, organisms need to acquire cell–cell adhesion mechanisms and the capacity to exchange signals and nutrients between cells. It is also important that the cells that make up an organism function collectively, a situation that is usually made possible by clonal multiplication from a single initial cell. Over the past two decades, analysis of a broad range of both unicellular and multicellular organisms has provided important insights into the genetic and cellular features that underlie key features of multicellularity; however, there remain many outstanding questions to be addressed. For example, to what extent do evolutionary pressures drive transitions to multicellularity by acting on advantageous features, such as increased size in prey–predator interactions and division of labour between different cell types within the organism (differentiation)? Similarly, does the acquisition of multicellular characteristics itself drive the process to some extent by committing cells to increasing levels of cooperation ("ratcheting")? Do these questions apply differently to organisms that form by aggregation of multiple unicells compared with those derived by mitotic proliferation from a single initial cell? At the genetic level, is it possible to define a genomic toolkit responsible for multicellularity and, if this toolkit exists, did its emergence principally involve gain and loss of genes or were changes in gene regulation more important? To what extent did the independent emergence of multicellularity across the different major eukaryotic lineages involve similar mechanisms and, if they did, to what degree can we consider these events to have been independent, considering that these lineages can all be traced back to a common, unicellular ancestor? What is the relationship between multicellularity and other biological features such as sexual traits? Finally, how does multicellularity relate to the definition of a biological individual?
This Special Issue aims to address some of these questions, covering the evolution of both simple and complex multicellularity and including both experimental and theoretical approaches to understanding this important evolutionary transition.
Dr. J. Mark Cock
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- cell–cell adhesion
- cell–cell signalling
- development
- differentiation
- eukaryotes
- evolution
- evolutionary transition
- genetic toolkit
- multicellularity
- unicellular.
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