scholarly journals Spontaneous emergence of multicellular heritability

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed Alireza Zamani-Dahaj ◽  
Anthony Burnetti ◽  
Thomas Day ◽  
william C Ratcliff ◽  
Peter J. Yunker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Regulation ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Analytical Models ◽  
Biological Individuality ◽  
Cell Level ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Additional Layer ◽  
Multicellular Organisms ◽  
Major Transitions In Evolution

The Major Transitions in evolution include events and processes that result in the emergence of new levels of biological individuality. For collectives to undergo Darwinian evolution, their traits must be heritable, but the emergence of higher-level heritability is poorly understood and has long been considered a stumbling block for nascent evolutionary transitions. A change in the means by which genetic information is utilized and transmitted has been presumed necessary. Using analytical models, synthetic biology, and biologically-informed simulations, we explored the emergence of trait heritability during the evolution of multicellularity. Contrary to existing theory, we show that no additional layer of genetic regulation is necessary for traits of nascent multicellular organisms to become heritable; rather, heritability and the capacity to respond to natural selection on multicellular-level traits can arise ''for free.'' In fact, we find that a key emergent multicellular trait, organism size at reproduction, is usually more heritable than the underlying cell-level trait upon which it is based, given reasonable assumptions.

scholarly journals Cancer and intercellular cooperation

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. 170470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Bertolaso ◽  
Anna Maria Dieli
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Individual Organism ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Somatic Evolution ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Intercellular Cooperation ◽  
Multicellular Organisms ◽  
Different Levels

The major transitions approach in evolutionary biology has shown that the intercellular cooperation that characterizes multicellular organisms would never have emerged without some kind of multilevel selection. Relying on this view, the Evolutionary Somatic view of cancer considers cancer as a breakdown of intercellular cooperation and as a loss of the balance between selection processes that take place at different levels of organization (particularly single cell and individual organism). This seems an elegant unifying framework for healthy organism, carcinogenesis, tumour proliferation, metastasis and other phenomena such as ageing. However, the gene-centric version of Darwinian evolution, which is often adopted in cancer research, runs into empirical problems: proto-tumoural and tumoural features in precancerous cells that would undergo ‘natural selection’ have proved hard to demonstrate; cells are radically context-dependent, and some stages of cancer are poorly related to genetic change. Recent perspectives propose that breakdown of intercellular cooperation could depend on ‘fields’ and other higher-level phenomena, and could be even mutations independent. Indeed, the field would be the context, allowing (or preventing) genetic mutations to undergo an intra-organism process analogous to natural selection. The complexities surrounding somatic evolution call for integration between multiple incomplete frameworks for interpreting intercellular cooperation and its pathologies.

scholarly journals Major evolutionary transitions in individuality

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (33) ◽  
pp. 10112-10119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart A. West ◽  
Roberta M. Fisher ◽  
Andy Gardner ◽  
E. Toby Kiers
Keyword(s):  
Life Form ◽  
Cooperative Groups ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Evolution Of Life ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Multicellular Organisms ◽  
Unified Description

The evolution of life on earth has been driven by a small number of major evolutionary transitions. These transitions have been characterized by individuals that could previously replicate independently, cooperating to form a new, more complex life form. For example, archaea and eubacteria formed eukaryotic cells, and cells formed multicellular organisms. However, not all cooperative groups are en route to major transitions. How can we explain why major evolutionary transitions have or haven’t taken place on different branches of the tree of life? We break down major transitions into two steps: the formation of a cooperative group and the transformation of that group into an integrated entity. We show how these steps require cooperation, division of labor, communication, mutual dependence, and negligible within-group conflict. We find that certain ecological conditions and the ways in which groups form have played recurrent roles in driving multiple transitions. In contrast, we find that other factors have played relatively minor roles at many key points, such as within-group kin discrimination and mechanisms to actively repress competition. More generally, by identifying the small number of factors that have driven major transitions, we provide a simpler and more unified description of how life on earth has evolved.

scholarly journals Did Human Culture Emerge in a Cultural Evolutionary Transition in Individuality?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinah R. Davison ◽  
Claes Andersson ◽  
Richard E. Michod ◽  
Steven L. Kuhn
Keyword(s):  
Hierarchical Organization ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Social Communities ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Eusocial Insects ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Multicellular Organisms

AbstractEvolutionary Transitions in Individuality (ETI) have been responsible for the major transitions in levels of selection and individuality in natural history, such as the origins of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, multicellular organisms, and eusocial insects. The integrated hierarchical organization of life thereby emerged as groups of individuals repeatedly evolved into new and more complex kinds of individuals. The Social Protocell Hypothesis (SPH) proposes that the integrated hierarchical organization of human culture can also be understood as the outcome of an ETI—one that produced a “cultural organism” (a “sociont”) from a substrate of socially learned traditions that were contained in growing and dividing social communities. The SPH predicts that a threshold degree of evolutionary individuality would have been achieved by 2.0–2.5 Mya, followed by an increasing degree of evolutionary individuality as the ETI unfolded. We here assess the SPH by applying a battery of criteria—developed to assess evolutionary individuality in biological units—to cultural units across the evolutionary history of Homo. We find an increasing agreement with these criteria, which buttresses the claim that an ETI occurred in the cultural realm.

scholarly journals Evolutionary transitions during RNA virus experimental evolution

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1701) ◽  
pp. 20150441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago F. Elena
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evolution ◽  
Metabolic Networks ◽  
Rna Virus ◽  
Biological Complexity ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Specific Level ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Multicellular Organisms ◽  
John Maynard Smith

In their search to understand the evolution of biological complexity, John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry put forward the notion of major evolutionary transitions as those in which elementary units get together to generate something new, larger and more complex. The origins of chromosomes, eukaryotic cells, multicellular organisms, colonies and, more recently, language and technological societies are examples that clearly illustrate this notion. However, a transition may be considered as anecdotal or as major depending on the specific level of biological organization under study. In this contribution, I will argue that transitions may also be occurring at a much smaller scale of biological organization: the viral world. Not only that, but also that we can observe in real time how these major transitions take place during experimental evolution. I will review the outcome of recent evolution experiments with viruses that illustrate four major evolutionary transitions: (i) the origin of a new virus that infects an otherwise inaccessible host and completely changes the way it interacts with the host regulatory and metabolic networks, (ii) the incorporation and loss of genes, (iii) the origin of segmented genomes from a non-segmented one, and (iv) the evolution of cooperative behaviour and cheating between different viruses or strains during co-infection of the same host. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The major synthetic evolutionary transitions’.

scholarly journals The levels of selection and evolution of individuality

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-67
Author(s):  
Eva Kamerer
Keyword(s):  
Social Evolution ◽  
Multilevel Selection ◽  
Levels Of Selection ◽  
Selection Models ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions In Individuality ◽  
Major Transitions In Evolution

In this article I will analyze the transfer of fitness during the major transitions in evolution and its place in the multilevel selection models. The aim of the analysis is to show how social evolution can explain the evolutionary transitions in individuality.

scholarly journals Noise-driven cell differentiation and the emergence of spatiotemporal patterns

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadiseh Safdari ◽  
Ata Kalirad ◽  
Cristian Picioreanu ◽  
Rouzbeh Tusserkani ◽  
Bahram Goliaei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cell Aggregation ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Mechanistic Approach ◽  
Major Transition ◽  
Brave New World ◽  
Multicellular Organisms ◽  
Major Transitions In Evolution ◽  
Biological Innovations

AbstractOne of the major transitions in evolution is the step from unicellularity into the brave new world of multicellularity. To understand this feat, one has to fathom two main characteristics of multicellular organisms: differentiation and self-organization. Any explanation concerning this major transition should involve mechanisms that can simultaneously explain the marvellous intricacies manifest in the aforementioned characteristics, and an account of the evolution of such traits. Here we propose a noise-driven differentiation (NDD) model. The reliance on noise, in place of a more mechanistic approach, makes the NDD model a more suitable approach to explain differentiation and self-organization. Furthermore, our model sheds some light on the possible evolutionary origins of these biological innovations. To test the NDD model, we utilize a model of cell aggregation. The behavior of this model of cell aggregation is in concert with the NDD model.

The Major Transitions in Evolution

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Maynard Smith ◽  
Eors Szathmary
Keyword(s):  
Full Range ◽  
Evolution Of Cooperation ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Insect Societies ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Major Transition ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
History Of ◽  
Emergence Of Cooperation ◽  
Multicellular Organisms

Over the history of life there have been several major changes in the way genetic information is organized and transmitted from one generation to the next. These transitions include the origin of life itself, the first eukaryotic cells, reproduction by sexual means, the appearance of multicellular plants and animals, the emergence of cooperation and of animal societies, and the unique language ability of humans. This ambitious book provides the first unified discussion of the full range of these transitions. The authors highlight the similarities between different transitions--between the union of replicating molecules to form chromosomes and of cells to form multicellular organisms, for example--and show how understanding one transition sheds light on others. They trace a common theme throughout the history of evolution: after a major transition some entities lose the ability to replicate independently, becoming able to reproduce only as part of a larger whole. The authors investigate this pattern and why selection between entities at a lower level does not disrupt selection at more complex levels. Their explanation encompasses a compelling theory of the evolution of cooperation at all levels of complexity. Engagingly written and filled with numerous illustrations, this book can be read with enjoyment by anyone with an undergraduate training in biology. It is ideal for advanced discussion groups on evolution and includes accessible discussions of a wide range of topics, from molecular biology and linguistics to insect societies.

scholarly journals Evolutionary trade-offs between unicellularity and multicellularity in budding yeast

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennie J. Kuzdzal-Fick ◽  
Lin Chen ◽  
Gábor Balázsi
Keyword(s):  
Mitotic Exit ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Bet Hedging ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Wild Yeast ◽  
Yeast Strains ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Mitotic Exit Network ◽  
Multicellular Organisms ◽  
Benefits And Costs

ABSTRACTMulticellular organisms appeared on Earth through several independent major evolutionary transitions. Are such transitions reversible? Addressing this fundamental question entails understanding the benefits and costs of multicellularity versus unicellularity. For example, some wild yeast strains form multicellular clumps, which might be beneficial in stressful conditions, but this has been untested. Here we show that unicellular yeast evolves from clump-forming ancestors by propagating samples from suspension after larger clumps have settled. Unicellular yeast strains differed from their clumping ancestors mainly by mutations in the AMN1 (Antagonist of Mitotic exit Network) gene. Ancestral yeast clumps were more resistant to freeze/thaw, hydrogen peroxide, and ethanol stressors than their unicellular counterparts, while unicellularity was advantageous without stress. These findings inform mathematical models, jointly suggesting a trade-off between the benefits and downsides of multicellularity, causing bet-hedging by regulated phenotype switching as a survival strategy in unexpected stress.

scholarly journals The order of trait emergence in the evolution of cyanobacterial multicellularity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Hammerschmidt ◽  
Giddy Landan ◽  
Fernando Domingues Kümmel Tria ◽  
Jaime Alcorta ◽  
Tal Dagan
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Phenotypic Trait ◽  
Evolutionary Transition ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Differentiated Cells ◽  
Labor Theory ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
Reproductive Life ◽  
History Of ◽  
Multicellular Organisms

AbstractThe transition from unicellular to multicellular organisms is one of the most significant events in the history of life. Key to this process is the emergence of Darwinian individuality at the higher level: groups must become single entities capable of reproduction for selection to shape their evolution. Evolutionary transitions in individuality are characterized by cooperation between the lower level entities and by division of labor. Theory suggests that division of labor may drive the transition to multicellularity by eliminating the trade-off between two incompatible processes that cannot be performed simultaneously in one cell. Here we examine the evolution of the most ancient multicellular transition known today, that of cyanobacteria, where we reconstruct the sequence of ecological and phenotypic trait evolution. Our results show that the prime driver of multicellularity in cyanobacteria was the expansion in metabolic capacity offered by nitrogen fixation, which was accompanied by the emergence of the filamentous morphology and succeeded by a reproductive life cycle. This was followed by the progression of multicellularity into higher complexity in the form of differentiated cells and patterned multicellularity.Significance StatementThe emergence of multicellularity is a major evolutionary transition. The oldest transition, that of cyanobacteria, happened more than 3 to 3.5 billion years ago. We find N2 fixation to be the prime driver of multicellularity in cyanobacteria. This innovation faced the challenge of incompatible metabolic processes since the N2 fixing enzyme (nitrogenase) is sensitive to oxygen, which is abundantly found in cyanobacteria cells performing photosynthesis. At the same time, N2-fixation conferred an adaptive benefit to the filamentous morphology as cells could divide their labour into performing either N2-fixation or photosynthesis. This was followed by the culmination of complex multicellularity in the form of differentiated cells and patterned multicellularity.

scholarly journals Evolution of simple multicellularity increases environmental complexity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Rebolleda-Gómez ◽  
William C. Ratcliff ◽  
Jonathon Fankhauser ◽  
Michael Travisano
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Experimental Evolution ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Environmental Complexity ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Rapid Diversification ◽  
Ecological Mechanisms ◽  
Major Transitions In Evolution ◽  
Maintenance Of Diversity

AbstractMulticellularity—the integration of previously autonomous cells into a new, more complex organism—is one of the major transitions in evolution. Multicellularity changed evolutionary possibilities and facilitated the evolution of increased complexity. Transitions to multicellularity are associated with rapid diversification and increased ecological opportunity but the potential mechanisms are not well understood. In this paper we explore the ecological mechanisms of multicellular diversification during experimental evolution of the brewer’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The evolution from single cells into multicellular clusters modifies the structure of the environment, changing the fluid dynamics and creating novel ecological opportunities. This study demonstrates that even in simple conditions, incipient multicellularity readily changes the environment, facilitating the origin and maintenance of diversity.

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