Increasing hierarchical complexity throughout the history of life: phylogenetic tests of trend mechanisms

Paleobiology ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan D. Marcot ◽  
Daniel W. McShea
Keyword(s):  
Null Hypothesis ◽  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Eukaryotic Cell ◽  
Form Complex ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Rate Of Increase ◽  
Hierarchical Complexity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Multicellular Organisms

The history of life is punctuated by a number of major transitions in hierarchy, defined here as the degree of nestedness of lower-level individuals within higher-level ones: the combination of single-celled prokaryotic cells to form the first eukaryotic cell, the aggregation of single eukaryotic cells to form complex multicellular organisms, and finally, the association of multicellular organisms to form complex colonial individuals. These transitions together constitute one of the most salient and certain trends in the history of life, in particular, a trend in maximum hierarchical structure, which can be understood as a trend in complexity. This trend could be produced by a biased mechanism, in which increases in hierarchy are more likely than decreases, or by an unbiased one, in which increases and decreases are about equally likely. At stake is whether or not natural selection or some other force acts powerfully over the history of life to drive complexity upward.Too few major transitions are known to permit rigorous statistical discrimination of trend mechanisms based on these transitions alone. However, the mechanism can be investigated by using “minor transitions” in hierarchy, or, in other words, changes in the degree of individuation of the upper level. This study tests the null hypothesis that the probability (or rate) of increase and decrease in individuation are equal in a phylogenetic context. We found published phylogenetic trees for clades spanning minor transitions across the tree of life and identified changes in character states associated with those minor transitions. We then used both parsimony- and maximum-likelihood-based methods to test for asymmetrical rates of character evolution. Most analyses failed to reject equal rates of hierarchical increase and decrease. In fact, a bias toward decreasing complexity was observed for several clades. These results suggest that no strong tendency exists for hierarchical complexity to increase.

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 Evolution of Multicellularity

Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1532
Author(s):  
J. Mark Cock
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Multicellular Organisms

The emergence of multicellular organisms was, perhaps, the most spectacular of the major transitions during the evolutionary history of life on this planet [...]

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 The first eukaryotic kinome tree illuminates the dynamic history of present-day kinases

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leny M. van Wijk ◽  
Berend Snel
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Cell Signalling ◽  
Eukaryotic Cell ◽  
Functional Information ◽  
Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor ◽  
History Of ◽  
Human Kinome

AbstractEukaryotic Protein Kinases (ePKs) are essential for eukaryotic cell signalling. Several phylogenetic trees of the ePK repertoire of single eukaryotes have been published, including the human kinome tree. However, a eukaryote-wide kinome tree was missing due to the large number of kinases in eukaryotes. Using a pipeline that overcomes this problem, we present here the first eukaryotic kinome tree. The tree reveals that the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA) possessed at least 92 ePKs, much more than previously thought. The retention of these LECA ePKs in present-day species is highly variable. Fourteen human kinases with unresolved placement in the human kinome tree were found to originate from three known ePK superfamilies. Further analysis of ePK superfamilies shows that they exhibit markedly diverse evolutionary dynamics between the LECA and present-day eukaryotes. The eukaryotic kinome tree thus unveils the evolutionary history of ePKs, but the tree also enables the transfer of functional information between related kinases.

scholarly journals The origin and early radiation of terrestrial vertebrates

2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 1202-1213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Early Carboniferous ◽  
Late Devonian ◽  
Lower Carboniferous ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
History Of ◽  
Paleozoic Tetrapods ◽  
Early Radiation ◽  
Ways Of Life

The origin of tetrapods from sarcopterygian fish in the Late Devonian is one of the best known major transitions in the history of vertebrates. Unfortunately, extensive gaps in the fossil record of the Lower Carboniferous and Triassic make it very difficult to establish the nature of relationships among Paleozoic tetrapods, or their specific affinities with modern amphibians. The major lineages of Paleozoic labyrinthodonts and lepospondyls are not adequately known until after a 20–30 m.y. gap in the Early Carboniferous fossil record, by which time they were highly divergent in anatomy, ways of life, and patterns of development. An even wider temporal and morphological gap separates modern amphibians from any plausible Permo-Carboniferous ancestors. The oldest known caecilian shows numerous synapomorphies with the lepospondyl microsaur Rhynchonkos. Adult anatomy and patterns of development in frogs and salamanders support their origin from different families of dissorophoid labyrinthodonts. The ancestry of amniotes apparently lies among very early anthracosaurs.

scholarly journals Life history of Neoseiulus californicus (McGregor, 1954) (Acari: Phytoseiidae) fed with castor bean (Ricinus communisL.) pollen in laboratory conditions

2014 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 691-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
PP Marafeli ◽  
PR Reis ◽  
EC. da Silveira ◽  
GC Souza-Pimentel ◽  
MA. de Toledo
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Castor Bean ◽  
Ricinus Communis ◽  
Intrinsic Rate ◽  
Predatory Mite ◽  
Neoseiulus Californicus ◽  
Intrinsic Rate Of Increase ◽  
Ricinus Communis L ◽  
Rate Of Increase ◽  
History Of

The predatory mite, Neoseiulus californicus(McGregor, 1954) (Acari: Phytoseiidae) is one of the principal natural enemies of tetranychid mites in several countries, promoting efficient control of those mites in several food and ornamental crops. Pest attacks such as that of the spider mite, Tetranychus urticaeKoch, 1836 (Acari: Tetranychidae), is one of the problems faced by farmers, especially in the greenhouse, due to the difficulty of its control with the use of chemicals because of the development of fast resistance making it hard to control it. The objective of this work was to study the life history of the predatory mite N. californicus as a contribution to its mass laboratory rearing, having castor bean plant [Ricinus communis L. (Euphorbiaceae)] pollen as food, for its subsequent use as a natural enemy of T. urticae on a cultivation of greenhouse rosebushes. The studies were carried out in the laboratory, at 25 ± 2°C of temperature, 70 ± 10% RH and a 14 hour photophase. The biological aspects and the fertility life table were appraised. Longevity of 32.9 days was verified for adult females and 40.4 days for males. The intrinsic rate of increase (rm) was 0.2 and the mean generation time (T) was 17.2 days. The population doubled every 4.1 days. The results obtained were similar to those in which the predatory mite N. californicus fed on T. urticae.

scholarly journals Exploring and Reconstructing Ancestral Anatomies using Ontology-Informed Approaches

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergei Tarasov ◽  
Istvan Miko ◽  
Matthew Yoder ◽  
Josef Uyeda
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Character State ◽  
Ancestral Reconstruction ◽  
Anatomy Ontology ◽  
Insect Order ◽  
Ancestral Character State ◽  
Body Regions ◽  
Individual Traits ◽  
History Of ◽  
Complex Characters

Ancestral character state reconstruction has been long used to gain insight into the evolution of individual traits in organisms. However, organismal anatomies (= entire phenotypes) are not merely ensembles of individual traits, rather they are complex systems where traits interact with each other due to anatomical dependencies (when one trait depends on the presence of another trait) and developmental constraints. Comparative phylogenetics has been largely lacking a method for reconstructing the evolution of entire organismal anatomies or organismal body regions. Herein, we present a new approach named PARAMO (Phylogenetic Ancestral Reconstruction of Anatomy by Mapping Ontologies, Tarasov and Uyeda 2019) that takes into account anatomical dependencies and uses stochastic maps (i.e., phylogenetic trees with an instance of mapped evolutionary history of characters, Huelsenbeck et al. 2003) along with anatomy ontologies to reconstruct organismal anatomies. Our approach treats the entire phenotype or its component body regions as single complex characters and allows exploring and comparing phenotypic evolution at different levels of anatomical hierarchy. These complex characters are constructed by ontology-informed amalgamation of elementary characters (i.e., those coded in character matrix) using stochastic maps. In our approach, characters are linked with the terms from an anatomy ontology, which allows viewing them not just as an ensemble of character state tokens but as entities that have their own biological meaning provided by the ontology. This ontology-informed framework provides new opportunities for tracking phenotypic radiations and anatomical evolution of organisms, which we explore using a large dataset for the insect order Hymenoptera (sawflies, wasps, ants and bees).

scholarly journals Conflict and cooperation in eukaryogenesis: implications for the timing of endosymbiosis and the evolution of sex

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arunas L Radzvilavicius ◽  
Neil W Blackstone
Keyword(s):  
Cell Fusion ◽  
Mitochondrial Gene ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Eukaryotic Cell ◽  
Evolutionary Transition ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Conflict And Cooperation ◽  
Conflict Mediation ◽  
Considerable Debate ◽  
History Of

The complex eukaryotic cell is a result of an ancient endosymbiosis and one of the major evolutionary transitions. The timing of key eukaryotic innovations relative to the acquisition of mitochondria remains subject to considerable debate, yet the evolutionary process itself might constrain the order of these events. Endosymbiosis entailed levels-of-selection conflicts, and mechanisms of conflict mediation had to evolve for eukaryogenesis to proceed. The initial mechanisms of conflict mediation were based on the pathways inherited from prokaryotic symbionts and led to metabolic homeostasis in the eukaryotic cell, while later mechanisms (e.g., mitochondrial gene transfer) contributed to the expansion of the eukaryotic genome. Perhaps the greatest opportunity for conflict arose with the emergence of sex involving whole-cell fusion. While early evolution of cell fusion may have affected symbiont acquisition, sex together with the competitive symbiont behaviour would have destabilised the emerging higher-level unit. Cytoplasmic mixing, on the other hand, would have been beneficial for selfish endosymbionts, capable of using their own metabolism to manipulate the life history of the host. Given the results of our mathematical modelling, we argue that sex represents a rather late proto- eukaryotic innovation, allowing for the growth of the chimeric nucleus and contributing to the successful completion of the evolutionary transition.

scholarly journals The Evolutionary History of the Chymase Locus -a Locus Encoding Several of the Major Hematopoietic Serine Proteases

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (20) ◽  
pp. 10975
Author(s):  
Srinivas Akula ◽  
Zhirong Fu ◽  
Sara Wernersson ◽  
Lars Hellman
Keyword(s):  
Mast Cell ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Serine Proteases ◽  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Granzyme B ◽  
Large Family ◽  
Cathepsin G ◽  
Immune Functions ◽  
New Class ◽  
History Of

Several hematopoietic cells of the immune system store large amounts of proteases in cytoplasmic granules. The absolute majority of these proteases belong to the large family of chymotrypsin-related serine proteases. The chymase locus is one of four loci encoding these granule-associated serine proteases in mammals. The chymase locus encodes only four genes in primates, (1) the gene for a mast-cell-specific chymotryptic enzyme, the chymase; (2) a T-cell-expressed asp-ase, granzyme B; (3) a neutrophil-expressed chymotryptic enzyme, cathepsin G; and (4) a T-cell-expressed chymotryptic enzyme named granzyme H. Interestingly, this locus has experienced a number of quite dramatic expansions during mammalian evolution. This is illustrated by the very large number of functional protease genes found in the chymase locus of mice (15 genes) and rats (18 genes). A separate expansion has also occurred in ruminants, where we find a new class of protease genes, the duodenases, which are expressed in the intestinal region. In contrast, the opossum has only two functional genes in this locus, the mast cell (MC) chymase and granzyme B. This low number of genes may be the result of an inversion, which may have hindered unequal crossing over, a mechanism which may have been a major factor in the expansion within the rodent lineage. The chymase locus can be traced back to early tetrapods as genes that cluster with the mammalian genes in phylogenetic trees can be found in frogs, alligators and turtles, but appear to have been lost in birds. We here present the collected data concerning the evolution of this rapidly evolving locus, and how these changes in gene numbers and specificities may have affected the immune functions in the various tetrapod species.

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document